Gene Koprowski worked at the Heartland Institute from July 2015 until November 2015. He served as the director of marketing for the institute.
On Climate Change
Koprowski’s most noticeable climate change denial action came in the face of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si, published in 2015. Koprowski was part of the group of scientists that Heartland sent to Rome to “inform Pope Francis of the truth about climate science: There is no global warming crisis!” In response to Laudato Si, Koprowski made the claim that pagan rituals and “nature worship” were “seeping into the Church” and that he was “wondering, as a scholar, if pagan forms are returning to the Church this day..I would say, contrary to some criticism, that this is not communism that has entered the church. It’s, rather, paganism.” He also referenced Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which the Pope referenced on his trip to the United States, and said that it “will have a disparate impact on the poor. That’s a form of illegal discrmination…But it gets even worse. The Obama plan will also cause massive job losses for the Black and Hispanic communities- again the very people the pope is committed to helping.”
Leaving Heartland
Koprowski faced sexual harassment charges from a female employee, and while it is unclear whether he was fired or if he left voluntary, Koprowski stopped working for Heartland by November 2015.
See Also:
Heartland Institute, Joseph Bast, Marita Noon, Lennie Jarratt
Climate of Denial