The Heartland Institute, based in Chicago, purchased the school mailing list to provide balance to environmental teaching, its science director, Jay Lehr told the Canwest News Service.

"All the kids in our schools are being taught that climate change is a serious crisis and that we've got to reduce our (carbon dioxide) and they're being taught quite falsely," Lehr said. "We would like to educate people and basically give them the other side of the issue, so we send out materials only in hope of a little balance."

Among the materials the group sent was a 10-minute DVD called "Unstoppable Solar Cycles: The Real Story of Greenland," which says scientists are "deeply divided" about "the notion that climate change is mostly the result of human activities."

The Greenpeace environmental group said Heartland's financial sponsors include the Exxon-Mobil oil company, which has donated $791,000 to the institute since 1998, the report said.