Billboards linking climate change to murderers cause furor
Mass murderers and climate change, same deal says Heartland Institute.
A new advertising campaign using giant billboards is linking climate change scientists with mass murderers.
The Heartland Instiute, a right-wing climate change-denying group, unveiled the billboards this week in the Chicago area with pictures of killers like the Unabomber asking: "I still believe in global warming. Do you?"
The billboards were removed just days after they were put up, with Heartland officials claiming that it was just an experiment.
According to Live Science the billboards are a promotion campaign of the organization's International Congress on Climate Change in Chicago, which will take place later this month.
In a press release the group explained its reasoning:
"These rogues and villains were chosen because they made public statements about how man-made global warming is a crisis and how mankind must take immediate and drastic actions to stop it."
It went on to say, "Why did Heartland choose to feature these people on its billboards? Because what these murderers and madmen have said differs very little from what spokespersons for the United Nations, journalists for the "mainstream" media, and liberal politicians say about global warming."
The Institute said that Osama Bin Laden and Charles Manson would be featured next reported the Guardian.
The conservative group said the billboards drove at least 10,000 visitors to its website said the Sydney Morning Herald.
The move saw swift reaction from both opponents and allies.
Many conservative speakers at the upcoming conference, demanded the billboard be taken down, including Republican congressman Jim Sensenbrenner.
Prominent climate scientist Michael Mann said he was not surprised by the move.
"This is only the latest in a long history of truly heinous actions by the Heartland Institute," said Mann, a professor at the Pennsylvania State University, to Live Science.
"The only thing I can think of here is that they are acting out of true desperation."
The right-wing group has come under fire recently as leaked documents revealed that most of its money comes from one wealthy donor linked to the oil and gas industry.
It also showed how the Institute planned to spread misinformation campaigns in schools.
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