Cornwall Alliance
Background information for reporters
The Cornwall Alliance (CA) is a fringe US evangelical Christian group that claims there is
no evidence that increased levels of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere will cause an
environmental problem.
The group, which does not disclose its funders, claims environmentalism is “one of the
greatest threats to society and the church today.” The group’s Evangelical Declaration
on Global Warming states: “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human
contribution to greenhouse gases is causing dangerous global warming.”
Though it portrays itself as independent, the CA is closely tied to the Committee for a
Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), who are also here in Rome promoting climate science
denial.
Funding
The CA is a project of the US’s “James Partnership” which does not disclose its funders.
In 2012, more than half of the James Partnership’s $340,0000 income came through a
“dark money” funding group known as Donors Trust (DT), which is exclusively and
explicitly tied to conservative donors who want to give anonymously to promote “free
enterprise” and low government regulation.
DT, which helps to hide the identity of donors, has been described as the “dark money
ATM” of the conservative right in the US. DT and its sister organisation Donors Capital
Fund (DCF) funnelled millions of dollars to groups that deny climate science or oppose
laws to cut fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. Major contributors to DT and
DCF include foundations funded and controlled by the US oil billionaire Koch brothers,
who are major backers of the US Republican movement.
According to US tax records, about one quarter of the James Partnership’s income is
spent on the salary of Calvin Beisner, the founder and spokesperson for the Cornwall
Alliance, and who will be speaking in Rome.
Key members:
Calvin Beisner has a Ph.D in Scottish History, and is a former Professor of Social
Ethics at Knox Theological Seminary. Beisner is known as a “leading evangelical
climate-change skeptic”.
In 2012, Dr. Beisner claimed the modern environmental movement represents "the
greatest threat to Western civilization" because it combines "the utopian vision of
Marxism, the scientific facade of secular humanism, and the religious fanaticism of jihad"
into a pseudo-religion that undermines Christianity. Beisner claimed the 2012 tropical
storm Sandy, which killed more than 200 people and caused billions of dollars in
damages, was “perhaps judgement” from God.
In 2014, CA Scholar and advisory board member Dr Roy Spencer, of the University of
Alabama, called on people to use the term “global warming Nazis” to describe anyone
who uses the term “denier” to describe groups or people who deny the findings of large
amounts of scientific literature on climate change.
The CA’s “Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming” states: “We deny that Earth and
its ecosystems are the fragile and unstable products of chance, and particularly that
Earth’s climate system is vulnerable to dangerous alteration because of minuscule
changes in atmospheric chemistry.”
History

 In late 2005, US evangelical leaders like Rick Warren joined a drive to back a major
initiative to fight global warming, saying “millions of people could die in this century
because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.”
To counter this historic shift in the evangelical community, a group called the “Interfaith
Stewardship Alliance” (ISA) was launched to oppose action on carbon emissions and to
deny the existence of climate change. One of the men guiding this group was Paul
Driessen, a PR professional and consultant for ExxonMobil, the mining industry, and for
CFACT.
For “streamlining” reasons, ISA re-launched as the Cornwall Alliance in 2005. With the
new name came a redesigned website, highly produced web videos, and an organized
network of churches to distribute climate change denying propaganda to hundreds of
pastors around the country. CFACT President David Rothbard has been hailed as the
“driving force” behind the Cornwall Declaration public relations effort. Calvin Beisner sits
on CFACT’s Board of Advisors.
DeSmog Media Contacts:
UK: Brendan Montague brendan@desmog.uk +44 7590 030201
US: Brendan DeMelle brendan@desmogblog.com +01 206-295-4399

The Heartland Institute
Background for reporters
The Heartland Institute is a Chicago-based, libertarian think tank that promotes
“public policy based on individual liberty, limited government, and free markets.”
Heartland has been one of the organizations at the forefront of US campaigns
denying the scientific consensus on man-made climate change and attacking
progress on climate and clean energy policies.
Heartland’s views run against 97 per cent of all peer-reviewed scientific research on
climate change and are counter to every major science academy in the world.
Heartland is a key player in pushing climate science denial in the US, where the vast
majority of the Republicans in Congress refuse to accept global warming science.
These Republican elected officials draw heavily on climate denying “science”
published by the Heartland Institute.
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The Heartland Institute has organised nine so-called “international conference
on climate change” events set up to challenge the science of climate change,
and will hold its tenth conference in Washington in June 2015.
In 2012, Heartland ran a billboard campaign that equated climate change
advocacy with mass murder and terrorism. The billboard featured a picture of
Ted Kaczynski (the “unabomber”) next to the text “I still believe in Global
Warming. Do You?” Heartland intended to follow this with billboards featuring

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Charles Manson and Osama bin Laden. Heartland claimed: “The most
prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists; they are murderers,
tyrants, and madmen.”
Heartland funds and hosts the “Nongovernmental International Panel on
Climate Change” (NIPCC), a document series that looks like the reports
issued by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The
NIPCC produces a report called "Climate Change Reconsidered.” The last
edition’s (2014) main focus: C02 is good for plants and agriculture.
Heartland routinely attacks climate science and scientists, especially after
“climategate,” when the emails of prominent climate scientists were hacked
and stolen from East Anglia University. Heartland used various lines from the
emails, taken out of context, to promote the myth that a conspiracy of
international science bodies are hiding the truth about the global climate.
When it was revealed recently that climate denying scientist, Willie Soon, of
Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, had received - but not
disclosed - more than $1.25 million from the fossil fuel industry for his papers
that purported to claim climate change wasn’t real, it was the Heartland
Institute that ran his defence, issuing press releases on his behalf.

A July 2011 Nature editorial points out the group's lack of scientific credibility:
"Despite criticizing climate scientists for being overconfident about their data,
models and theories, the Heartland Institute proclaims a conspicuous
confidence in single studies and grand interpretations....makes many bold
assertions that are often questionable or misleading.... Many climate sceptics
seem to review scientific data and studies not as scientists but as attorneys,
magnifying doubts and treating incomplete explanations as falsehoods rather
than signs of progress towards the truth. ... The Heartland Institute and its ilk
are not trying to build a theory of anything. They have set the bar much lower,
and are happy muddying the waters.
Funding:
While the Heartland Institute has not disclosed its funding sources since 2006, it
received at least $676,500 from ExxonMobil from 1998-2006. But even ExxonMobil
dropped its funding of Heartland after 2006. It has also received funding from the
Koch Brothers. Donors Capital Fund (DCF) and its partner organization Donors Trust
(DT) are explicitly aligned to conservative political views and allow donors to fund
organizations anonymously. Heartland has received large anonymous donations of
“dark money” through DCF and DT, with a combined total of at least $10,815,644. In
the latest tax year available, 2013, Heartland was one of the largest recipients of
money from Donors Capital Fund, receiving $1.7 million in grants.
History:
The Heartland Institute was founded in 1984 by Chicago-based investment banker
David Padden. In the 1990s, Heartland worked with the tobacco company Philip
Morris to question the science linking secondhand smoke to health risks, and lobbied
against government public health reforms. Heartland continues to maintain a
“Smoker's Lounge” section of its website with policy studies, Op-Eds, essays, and
other documents that purport to “[cut] through the propaganda and exaggeration of

 anti-smoking groups.” In the early 1990's, Heartland fought government regulations
on tobacco by denying the health effects of secondhand tobacco smoke, while taking
significant funding from tobacco corporations like RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris.
References:
http://desmogblog.com/heartland-institute
http://www.polluterwatch.com/heartland-institute
http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=41
DeSmog Media Contacts:
UK: Brendan Montague brendan@desmog.uk +44 7590 030201
US: Brendan DeMelle brendan@desmogblog.com +01 206-295-4399

Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)
Background information for reporters
The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) is a freemarket group that has “waged a decades-long war on environmental
activism.”
Over the past 15 years, CFACT has worked to distort and attack the
scientific consensus on climate change, and to confuse public opinion
on the issue, regularly employing or sponsoring professional deniers
and contrarians to peddle doubt and misinformation. It is a regular
sponsor of the Heartland Institute’s climate change denier conferences
(see Heartland info sheet).
CFACT is a member of the Cooler Heads Coalition, which describes its
aim as “dispelling the myths of global warming through sound science
and analysis.”

 Their views run against 97 percent of all peer-reviewed scientific
research on climate change and are counter to every major science
academy in the world.
In December 2009, CFACT was a co-organiser of the Copenhagen
Climate Challenge, a conference for climate change deniers during the
UN climate change conference. CFACT’s Craig Rucker told the press at
the time: “We think there is no consensus on climate change and there
should not be a treaty from Copenhagen based on a lack of
consensus.”
In December 2012, one of CFACT’s delegates to the COP18 climate
talks in Doha, Lord Christopher Monckton was permanently
expelled from the talks for impersonating an official UN party delegate.
Monckton, who is not a climate scientist, will appear in Rome at the
press conferences organised by CFACT and the Heartland Institute (see
full list of “experts” for Rome). Monckton has described the Pope
Francis encyclical as a “climate-Communist” declaration.
CFACT’s other main speaker at the Rome events is Marc Morano,
former communications director for the US’s most prominent
Republican climate denier, Sen. James Inhofe. CFACT hired Morano to
run its new offshoot, ClimateDepot. Morano has regularly posted the
email addresses of climate scientists on his website which has
contributed to many scientists receiving vitriolic hate mail and, in some
cases, death threats. What does Morano think about climate
scientists? He once said: "I seriously believe we should kick them
while they're down. They deserve to be publicly flogged." He is
exposed in a new film about science denial tactics called “Merchants of
Doubt,” where Morano boasts about his role in the targeting of climate
scientists.
CFACT Funders
CFACT has received over $4.1 million in funds from Donors Trust (DT)
and Donors Capital Fund (DCF) between 2002-2011, plus an additional
$582,000 from ExxonMobil between 1998-2012. CFACT is among over
a dozen organizations that get 30-70 per cent of their funding from
Donors Trust and DCF - shadowy foundations described as the “dark
money ATM” of the conservative right wing in the US. The DT and DCF
have received significant funds through foundations controlled and
financed by the US oil billionaire Koch brothers.
History:
CFACT was founded in 1985 to pursue a free-market approach to
environmental issues. They describe their role as “relentlessly infusing

 the environmental debate with a balanced perspective on
environmental stewardship.”
Resources:
DeSmogBlog information page:
http://www.desmogblog.com/committee-constructive-tomorrow
SourceWatch information page:
http://sourcewatch.org/index.php/Committee_for_a_Constructive_Tomor
row
Monckton quote on “climateCommunism” :http://www.climatedepot.com/2015/01/03/the-greatpause-lengthens-again-global-temperature-update-the-pause-is-now18-years-3-months/
DeSmog Media Contacts:
UK: Brendan Montague brendan@desmog.uk +44 7590 030201
US: Brendan DeMelle
brendan@desmogblog.com +01 206-295-4399

QUESTIONS THE CLIMATE DENIERS IN ROME HOPE YOU WON’T ASK
 In 2012, the Heartland Institute claimed that “the most prominent advocates
of global warming aren't scientists; they are murderers, tyrants, and madmen”
Is this what you think of the Pope’s efforts on climate change?
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Lord Monckton likened the views of Australian climate change policy advisor
Ross Garnaut to a nazi, and said his views on climate change were “fascist”.
Is this what you think of the Pope’s views?

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World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said last year: “We have powerful new
evidence that even if climate change falls short of the much-discussed 4°C
warmer world, we could witness the rolling back of decades of development
gains and force tens of millions more to live in poverty. If we don’t confront
climate change, we won’t end poverty.” Do you agree with this view?

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You claim that global warming has “paused” - but how do you explain the fact
that the oceans have warmed, that sea level is rising, that ice sheets are
melting and we’ve just had the hottest decade on record?

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Your group member (speaker) Lord Monckton has described Pope Francis’
approaching encyclical as "a climate-Communist" document. Can you explain
why you think this is linked to communism?

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Are greenhouse gases from human activity currently causing warming and
climate change? Yes or No
Are you confident that the weather is not being affected by climate change
right now, and will not be disrupted in the future? Will you go on the record
stating there will never be any harm caused by human induced climate
change and extreme weather that results from it?

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Who is currently funding your climate change campaigns? How many climate
scientists are paid employees of the Heartland Institute, CFACT or the
Cornwall Alliance?
Are any of you Roman Catholic? Do you question the importance that Pope
Francis has placed on protecting God’s creation?
Lord Monckton - you once suggested science should only be practised by
people who adhere to a religion, preferably Christian. Do you still think that?

The “experts” who will speak against climate science in Rome
Hal Doiron: Promoted as a NASA scientist, Dr. Doiron has published science papers
on engineering, space structures, and “space shuttle pogo prevention.” Dr. Doiron
has never published in peer-reviewed journals on the subject of climate change.
Richard Keen: Dr. Keen is instructor emeritus at the University of Colorado
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. According to Keen, he has
experience as a meteorologist in the army and has “done some climate modeling
when I was younger and less wise.” He has never claimed any training as a
climatologist.
Lord Christopher Monckton: British politician Lord Monckton, who dubs himself the
“high priest of climate skepticism” was sacked as head of the UK Independence
Party’s Scottish branch. According to The Guardian’s George Monbiot, Monckton
“has a degree in classics and a diploma in journalism and, as far as I can tell, no
further qualifications.” Monckton once likened a prominent government climate
policy advisor to a nazi, claiming his views on climate change were “fascist.” He says
the Pope Francis encyclical on the environment is a “climate-Communist” document.

 Referring to climate scientists, Monckton told an Australian crowd: “We are going to
prosecute you, and we are going to lock you up.”
Calvin Beisner: Dr. Beisner, a founder of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship
of Creation, has a Ph.D in Scottish History, and is a former Professor of Social Ethics
at Knox Theological Seminary. Beisner is known as a “leading evangelical climatechange skeptic.”
Thomas Sheahen: Vice chair of the board of the Science and Environment Policy
Project (SEPP), an organisation set up by one of the early climate science deniers,
S. Fred Singer. Questions science on Antarctic Ice sheet melting, and calls
environmentalism a “surrogate religion”. A copy of Sheahen’s own CV, linked from
the Heartland Institute’s website, shows no relevant scientific papers published on
climate change.
Marc Morano: former communications director for the US’s most prominent
Republican climate denier, Sen. James Inhofe. In 2009, Morano set up a new
website: ClimateDepot. Morano has regularly posted climate scientists’ email
addresses on his website, contributing to many receiving hate mail and, in some
cases, death threats. He once said of climate scientists: "I seriously believe we
should kick them while they're down. They deserve to be publicly flogged." He has
been exposed in a new film about climate science denial tactics called “Merchants of
Doubt”.
Morano on the Pope and climate change this week:
'Instead of entering into an invalid Marriage with climate fear promoters -- a marriage
that is destined for an annulment – Pope Francis should administer last rites to the
promotion of man-made climate fears and their so-called solutions. This unholy
alliance must be prevented….