A bunch of emails have been leaked from the Heartland Institute, the think tank vaguely infamous for being at once massively skeptical of climate change and funded by billionaire global warming deniers, the Koch Brothers. The emails suggest that the Institute has been paying scientists and bloggers to discredit climate change research.

The emails were obtained by DeSmogBlog, a blog that monitors corporate efforts to undermine climate science. They reportedly came from a Heartland Institute “insider.”

Says one particularly damning email:

At the moment, this funding goes primarily to Craig Idso ($11,600 per month), Fred Singer ($5,000 per month, plus expenses), Robert Carter ($1,667 per month), and a number of other individuals, but we will consider expanding it, if funding can be found.

Although the claims in the email haven’t been verified, the three individuals mentioned above did author a report for Heartland, adding a little fuel to the righteous-indignation fire.

So far Heartland’s only response has been to issue a statement claiming at least one of the documents is a fake, and others may have been altered.

[Source: DeSmogBlog]