John Locke Foundation launches a same-ol, same-ol North Carolina misinformation campaign

onJul 26, 2007 @ 13:39 PDT

We’ll never know whether the great empiricist John Locke would have been part of the global warming denial industry, but we can be pretty darn sure that the self-proclaimed “John Locke Foundation” (JLF) is.

The JLF is a well-heeled political organization based in North Carolina that has recently published a “North Carolina’s citizen’s guide to global warming” (pdf). The guide contains the usual global warming myths that are perpetuated ad nauseum by the global warming denial echo machine – water vapor, medieval warming period etc.

The author of the report, Joel Schwartz, is touring North Carolina flogging the JLF guide. Schwartz, is not a member of the JLF, but is instead currently employed as a “visiting fellow” at the American Enterprise Institute. If you’re not familiar with the AEI‘s involvement in the global warming denial industry, you can check out more here, here and here.

Schwartz is also tight with the usual cadre of the denial industry, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the National Center for Policy Analysis, and the Reason Foundation.

Here’s a link to Schwartz’s resume and publications list. Same old song and dance by the global warming denial industry, just a new venue. As the preponderance of scientific evidence for human-caused climate change continues to grow, it only serves to exaggerate the dearth of any real science from the likes of Schwartz and the JFL.

So if anyone in North Carolina happens across the JLF traveling roadshow, please stand up and hold Schwartz and the JLF to account. Ask them the tough questions, like whether they can back their claims with scientific data, or whether they believe Mr. Schwartz’s involvement with organizations that have collectively received millions in funding from the oil industry would not be considered a conflict of interest?

Can someone maybe also ask them if they think anyone is even buying their snake-oil anymore? Unfortunately, I suspect many are.

Tomorrow, we will report more in-depth on the history, activities and affiliations of the John Locke Foundation – we’ve uncovered all sorts of interesting things.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.