Climate change countermovements and adaptive strategies: insights from Heartland Institute annual conferences a decade apart

What kind of ancestors will those involved in climate change countermovements (CCMs) be? Among CCMs, the Heartland Institute has been an adaptive conservative think tank in the United States (USA) over the past decades, with funding from carbon-based industry-linked groups that has amplified the reach of their claims while shaping their power and influence in the USA public sphere. Through inductive qualitative methods and grounded theory, this study appraises their ongoing clout as garnered through interviews and participant observations from the 14th International Conference on Climate Change hosted by the Heartland Institute in 2021. Thematic findings are compared and contrasted with previous interview data and participant observations at the 2011 Heartland Institute conference. This research finds ten key themes—five comparisons and five contrasts—that point to adaptive strategies deployed in ongoing and wider CCM efforts that effectively shape sustainability technology and climate policy. Similarities over time are (1) freedom and liberty; (2) attacks on relevant-expert scientists, science, and “alarmism”; (3) rhetoric of embattled underdogs fighting orthodoxies; (4) evidence of righteousness and confidence; and (5) adversarial mentalities. Differences are (1) waning attention, (2) diminished influence, (3) an increased appetite for “culture wars,” (4) more personal reflection on legacy, and (5) increased entrenchment in state-level activities such as anti-environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles initiatives. Spanning a decade, this work assesses how these Heartland Institute climate contrarians’ claims provide insights into ongoing adaptive CCM activities with critical attention paid to how they politicize and polarize decision-making at multiple scales in contemporary society.