Dennis Avery of the oil money backed Hudson Institute may find a niche for his junk science today when he speaks at Seattle's Discovery Institute. While the Discovery Institute may sound impressive, it is actually a very small think tank based in Seattle. Unlike the Avery's Hudson Institute, the DI's claim to fame is not being paid by big oil companies to spread misinformation, but is instead famous for it's epic battles to teach intelligent design in American public schools.

Joseph Bast, president of the Heartland Institute, wrote an opinion piece that appeared in today’s Philadelphia Daily News, asking readers whom they would believe, Al Gore or scientists.

It is interesting to observe that the cadre of scientists Bast refers to as proof that Gore is wrong seems to be getting smaller and their collective expertise in the area of climate change continues to diminish as more and more jump off the climate denial bandwagon. For instance, Bast claims Tim Ball, former professor at the University of Winnipeg, to be an “expert” on climate change, when in fact Dr. Ball has not published any research in a peer-reviewed science journal in the last 20 years.

All this becomes even more questionable when you question the source of this article, Joseph Bast himself.

The recent opinion piece by Dennis T. Avery of the Hudson Institute is a great example of the PR spin and misinformation campaign being used in the climate change debate. His latest claims are almost as outrageous as his conclusion that organic food is more dangerous to eat than food produced using chemical pesticides.