We can now count the dead and the imaginary among the shrinking number of scientists in the Heartland Institute list of 500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares.

"Bond, G., Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory;" "Bradbury, J. Pratt, USGS;" and "Keeling, Charles D., Scripps Institute of Oceanography" are all deceased and therefore unable to join the chorus of legitimate scientists who are demanding that their names be removed from the list.

Earlier today we broke the story about dozens of scientists outraged that their name is included on a list widely distributed by the Heartland Institute with an article entitled 500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares.

The article is written by Dennis Avery, a "Senior Fellow" at the Heartland Institute. The article which was first published by another think tank called the Hudson Institute, where Avery is also listed as a "Senior Fellow," has bounced around the internet as proof that there is great doubts about the realities of human-caused global warming.

We emailed 122 of the scientists and in less than 24 hours more than 35 scientists have responded in outrage.

The list of the Heartland 500 is attached. If you are on the list please let us know by email at: desmogblog@gmail.com.

Here's a headline from the UK's Telegraph that we haven't seen in quite a while: 'Global Warming is Good and Not our Fault.'

I quite honestly thought we were past this, but it seems Denis Avery and Fred Singer can still eke out a headline once in a while.

Avery and Singer are grandfathers of the climate denial industry and their antiquated 'research' spun in the name of science, is a reflection of just how long in the tooth they have become when it comes to the issue of climate change.

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.