Chinese science academy slaps down climate-denying Heartland Institute
Translated, yes. Endorsed, no.
Well, that was embarrassing.
The Heartland Institute — the right-wing group best known for its Unabomber billboard — recently boasted on a blog about successfully spreading its message of climate denial to the Chinese:
The trend toward skepticism and away from alarmism is now unmistakable …
Publication of a Chinese translation of Climate Change Reconsidered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences indicates the country’s leaders believe their [failure to sign a global climate treaty] is justified by science and not just economics.
But really all that happened was that one of Heartland’s climate-denial reports, “Climate Change Reconsidered,” was translated into Chinese [PDF].
And translation does not mean endorsement. Even the translators’ preface says the work was undertaken “to understand different opinions and positions in debates on climate change” and “does not reflect that [those involved in the translation] agree with the views” in the report.
When the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) got wind of Heartland’s blog post, it was not pleased. It put out a statement harshly condemning the post:
The claim of the Heartland Institute about CAS’ endorsement of its report is completely false. …
Since there is absolutely no ground for the so called CAS endorsement of the report, and the actions by the Heartland Institute went way beyond acceptable academic integrity, we have requested by email to the president of the Heartland Institute that the false news on its website to be removed. We also requested that the Institute issue a public apology to CAS for the misleading statement on the CAS endorsement.
Heartland then offered up a weak non-apology apology and the offending blog post was deleted. Oops.
Source
The Heartland Institute’s skeptical Chinese fantasy, The Guardian
Heartland Institute Embarrasses Itself Again, Slate
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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Chinese science academy slaps down climate-denying Heartland Institute
