Sometimes the juxtaposition of editorial content and real news is too much to ignore. On Nov. 29, The Gazette devoted a portion of its Insight page to a column by James M. Taylor, a senior fellow for environmental policy at the Heartland Institute, that insisted global warming is not leading to more frequent and severe droughts.

On the opposite page on the same day, an AP story described how an area of Arctic sea ice larger than the United melted this year. In 2012, the article states, droughts hammered “nearly two thirds of the U.S. as well as western Russia and Southern Europe.”

In the same week, The Gazette ran a front-page story in which a grave digger described how the soil in Iowa is as hard as concrete just a few inches below the surface.

But there’s nothing going on here, according to the Heartland Institute, an organization that sponsored billboards in the Chicago area in May with a picture of the “unabomber” Ted Kaczynski asking, “I still believe in global warming, do you?”

Regardless of whether you believe in global warming, or climate change in general, the Heartland Institute has zero credibility on these matters. This non-profit “think tank” is devoted, however, to opposing environmental regulations and thwarting green-energy initiatives, while backing an organization like the American Legislative Exchange Council, which writes and promotes legislation favoring the interests of big energy conglomerates.

Craig Hlas

Cedar Rapids