Nucor’s Logo
Nucor, the largest producer of steel in the U.S., takes great pains to present a green image. Nucor’s website is full of oak trees and pastoral scenes next to the tag line Nucor: Its Our Nature.
However, since 2010, Nucor has given at least $500,000 to the Heartland Institute, a right wing corporate front group that attacks climate change science and scientists. According to Heartlands own fundraising documents, Nucors contributions were earmarked specifically for attacking climate science and environmental regulations. Heartland has recently made headlines for a billboard campaign featuring a picture of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, next to the words I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?
The billboard campaign is the latest in Heartlands continuing battle against the scientific evidence of climate change. Heartland has also sponsored and organized six conferences on climate denial in the past 5 years, and they recently held a seventh that took place May 21-23 in Chicago. The International Conferences on Climate Change, as Heartland calls them, provide a platform and meeting space for the small cadre of professional climate science deniers that have derailed meaningful solutions to the threats of global warming in the U.S.
This years conference featured the usual self-contradictory climate denier arguments, which includes everything from outright denial that the earth temperature is going up, to admitting the globe is warming but denying that humans and CO2 are involved, to admitting the earth is warming, humans and CO2 are involved, but the warming will be beneficial. However, this years meeting also delved in to other fanatical conspiracy theories, like the belief that President Barack Obamas Hawaiian birth certificate is not real.
Because of their outrageous attacks on climate science, 15 corporations have dropped the Heartland Institute. Send Nucor’s CEO Dan Dimicco an email telling him to stop funding the Heartland Institute and climate denial.
The truth is, if Heartlands deceptive and dishonest talk about climate science was aimed at the few aging contrarians that attended the latest meeting, it wouldnt be that big of a deal. However, Heartland doesnt get paid by Nucor and other big carbon emitting corporations to mislead a fringe tribe of retired old white men (picture of conference at right). Heartland gets paid to derail solutions to climate change. This has meant creating anti-science curriculum for grade schools, paying spokespeople to deny climate science, and attacking the scientists that do real work on climate change.
Given that the $500,000 Nucor has given Heartland in the last 3 years was specifically for attacking climate science and environmental regulations, Nucor must be held accountable for Heartland’s climate science denial.
Nucor, one of the largest steel producers in the US, funds the Heartland Institute andwe are calling Nucors CEO to end funding to the Heartland Institute.
For updates on the Heartland Institute, see PolluterWatch’s ongoing investigation.
