The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian 501(c)(3) nonprofit public policy think tank known for its rejection of both the scientific consensus on climate change and the negative health impacts of smoking.
Heartland Institute in September 2016
Climate change denial is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none. Climate change denial includes unreasonable doubts about the extent to which climate change is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, and the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions. To a lesser extent, climate change denial can also be implicit when people accept the science but fail to reconcile it with their belief or action. Several studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism, pseudoscience, or propaganda.
Climate change denial sign in Sudbury, Canada (2016)
Percentage of documents taking each overall position on climate change as real and human-caused, 1977–2014. Blue=acknowledge; blue with lines=acknowledge including reasonable doubt; black=acknowledge and doubt; gray=reasonable doubt; red=doubt.
A protestor demonstrating as part of the "Exxon knew" movement in Washington, DC in 2015