Peter Gleick – Confessions of an Activist

Lucia’s thread is particularly interesting on the matter.

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UPDATE, WUWT — Heartland replies to Gleick and calls him out.

Gleicks story that he received the primary note first and then was able to get into Heartland’s highest levels to receive more is a little bit incredible.  Kind of like the Guardian supporting his insane actions:

A leading defender of climate change admitted tricking the libertarian Heartland Institute into turning over confidential documents detailing its plans to discredit the teaching of science to school children in last week’s sensational expose.

Truly unbelievable.  Climategate – not real – Gleick – hero!  While other opinions are given in the Guardian article, the vast majority of opinions come from left-wing groups and activists. Does anyone wonder why circulation is down?  The Heartland institute seems to have a little more information than Gleick is comfortable with or I doubt they would make a statement this strong. ( My bold):

Gleick also claims he did not write the forged memo, but only stole the documents to confirm the content of the memo he received from an anonymous source. This too is unbelievable. Many independent commentators already have concluded the memo was most likely written by Gleick.

We hope Gleick will make a more complete confession in the next few days.

Ouch!!  It looks like there is more to come.

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During the followup to the Heartland institute document release, some bloggers had deduced that government funded activist Peter Gleick had a hand in the mess.  His 501C is powered by government taxpayer cash, which is fine, except that he is an activist which uses the money to fund political messages in complete violation of IRS code.  Today at Dot Earth, Gleick shed his pseudo-science cloak.

Andy Revkin, fellow activist, has posted Gleick’s admission of his malfeasance.

The Origin of the Heartland Documents

Peter Gleick

Since the release in mid-February of a series of documents related to the internal strategy of the Heartland Institute to cast doubt on climate science, there has been extensive speculation about the origin of the documents and intense discussion about what they reveal. Given the need for reliance on facts in the public climate debate, I am issuing the following statement.

At the beginning of 2012, I received an anonymous document in the mail describing what appeared to be details of the Heartland Institute’s climate program strategy. It contained information about their funders and the Institute’s apparent efforts to muddy public understanding about climate science and policy. I do not know the source of that original document but assumed it was sent to me because of my past exchanges with Heartland and because I was named in it.

Given the potential impact however, I attempted to confirm the accuracy of the information in this document. In an effort to do so, and in a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics, I solicited and received additional materials directly from the Heartland Institute under someone else’s name. The materials the Heartland Institute sent to me confirmed many of the facts in the original document, including especially their 2012 fundraising strategy and budget. I forwarded, anonymously, the documents I had received to a set of journalists and experts working on climate issues. I can explicitly confirm, as can the Heartland Institute, that the documents they emailed to me are identical to the documents that have been made public. I made no changes or alterations of any kind to any of the Heartland Institute documents or to the original anonymous communication.

I will not comment on the substance or implications of the materials; others have and are doing so. I only note that the scientific understanding of the reality and risks of climate change is strong, compelling, and increasingly disturbing, and a rational public debate is desperately needed. My judgment was blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts — often anonymous, well-funded, and coordinated — to attack climate science and scientists and prevent this debate, and by the lack of transparency of the organizations involved. Nevertheless I deeply regret my own actions in this case. I offer my personal apologies to all those affected.

Now a bigger activist than Gleick is hard to come by, Tamino is in his category but only just.

I am completely baffled as to why these people receive credibility while reasonable scientists don’t.   This guy is so far over the top that nothing he writes, thinks, expresses or publishes should be taken without serious context placement.  Yet he is a ‘premier’ voice in environmental science.

So, the leftist version of climategate has spun into the ground with all the grace of an acrobatic aerial penguin team.  I’m sure that the media will issue few if any retractions as new stories based on the faked heartland document have continued to surface. We know which side owns the airwaves.

Steve McIntyre has an excellent and detailed breakdown of the Heartland documents which like Climategate, again exposes the false arguments of the politically motivated press.  If you want your climate news with honesty, blogging has become the premier source. – By default.