DeSmog

Content

Mission and audience

The blog was co-founded in January 2006 by James Hoggan, president of the public relations firm Hoggan and Associates. In a February 2007 interview with the Vancouver Sun, Hoggan conveyed his anger at industry interests who he believed mislead the public about the scientific understanding of global warming. He referred to this alleged misrepresentation of the facts as, "public relations at its sleaziest". Hoggan used his public relations skills to start a blog that would "clear the PR pollution that clouds the science of climate change" and expose organizations and individuals which he considered to be unethical. DeSmog says it reports on the credibility of experts who appear to misrepresent the science of global warming in the media by investigating their scientific background, funding sources, and industry interests. The site originally targeted a Canadian audience but is now involved in global climate change coverage.

Contributors to the site assist in researching organizations that the site's staff believe are phony grassroots organizations, or astroturf groups, sponsored directly or indirectly by industries seeking to thwart climate change-related legislation. Organizations alleged by the blog to be astroturfs include Friends of Science, Natural Resources Stewardship Project, Global Climate Coalition, and International Climate Science Coalition. Individuals that the site has identified as pushing an anti-climate change point of view are listed in the site's "Denial Database", with accompanying information about their industry affiliations and professional biographies. In a Financial Post column, Canadian environmentalist Lawrence Solomon stated that the organization was, in Solomon's words, "specifically created for the purpose of discrediting skeptics".

In a 2007 report in The Globe and Mail, Hoggan stated that the most frequent visitors to the site came from Calgary, Ottawa, and Washington D.C.

Heartland Institute documents

In February 2012, DeSmog posted a number of internal documents purportedly from The Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank. According to a statement posted on the Heartland Institute website, "Some of these documents were stolen from Heartland, at least one is a fake, and some may have been altered ... the authenticity of those documents has not been confirmed." On February 20, 2012, Peter Gleick issued a statement in the Huffington Post explaining that he had received an anonymous document in the mail that seemed to contain details on the climate program strategy of the Heartland Institute. He admitted to soliciting and receiving additional material from the institute "under someone else's name", calling his actions "a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics". Gleick maintains that the documents are real, not fake, contrary to what Heartland continues to claim. A separate, independent investigation by the Pacific Institute found no evidence of any forgery. According to The Guardian, Gleick "impersonated a Heartland board member to obtain and make public confidential budget and strategy documents...The Pacific Institute indicated...that it had found no evidence for Heartland's charges that Gleick had forged one of several documents he released last February."