You might have seen some of the news about the documents that have "leaked" out of the Heartland Institute. They were actually stolen by a climate scientist posing as a member of the Heartland Board. Heartland is upset that somebody got their memos and is threatening to sue anybody who posts the memos. Which they say are fake. Fake yet stolen memos. Very curious. Anyway, it is one of the first looks at the inside workings of the "think tanks" that work to create climate change denial, showing what we have long suspected. They are paid by oil and coal interests to produce their misleading "scientific like" reports.

The most recent leak outlined a plan to develop a new curriculum for K-12 that would teach climate change denial. I guess when you're brainstorming at Heartland about what's next, it's not bad enough that you're jeopardizing our children's future by insisting we stay on the path of carbon intensive energy — because the alternative might be less profitable for their clients, the most profitable companies on earth — now they feel we need to lie to our children about it as well.

This week we worked with m ss ng p eces to produce a video that imagines what happens when you let corporate interests into school curriculums. They also produced this DOUBT video with us on the same issue. It mentions Heartland and other "think tanks" that do the same work of creating doubt. Beginning with the cigarette companies, the businesses have enjoyed a steady stream of industries that are looking to cover up some unsavory truth.

The Heartland Institute and the work they do is unfortunately part of a bigger push that threatens a lot of science being done that might be at odds with corporate and government agendas. In Canada scientists working for the Canadian government can no longer talk to the press without prior approval to prevent them from saying something that might embarrass the government. Well yeah. Sometimes the truth is embarrassing to governments that are lying. That's the whole point.

Here's an open letter from climate scientists to the Heartland Institute.

Take a look and if you agree that scientists and teachers should probably be the ones teaching children please take the time to sign the petition.

By Alex Bogusky