Climate Science Legal Defense Fund: Protecting the Scientific Endeavor

Reposted from The Bridge: Connecting Science and Policy (American Geophysical Union blogosphere)
December 3, 2013
By Scott Mandia & Joshua Wolfe, co-founders of CSLDF

So you are having a great time at the AGU Fall Meeting. You are meeting science colleagues from around the world, you are seeing cutting edge research presented in the scientific program, and you are enjoying the sights and sounds of beautiful San Francisco.

Then you check your email and the blood drains from your face.

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Want to Help Our Climate Scientists? It’s Simple: Here’s How

Thanks to everyone who has supported our growth and development to date. We have had great successes in our first year and half and  we hope to continue to build on those. To continue our programing through the end of the year we need to raise $35,000 this summer and need your help to reach our goal. The money will go to two projects of ours. First, it will retire the debt owed by Dr. Michael Mann for attorney’s fees in the FOIA case over his UVA emails. Read more about the case here and here.

The money will also go towards continuing our program of sending attorneys to scientific meetings. There we offer confidential pro-bono meetings for members of the scientific community. After meeting with an attorney at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference last December, one scientist wrote us:

I was glad to be able to talk to an attorney who deeply cared about the integrity of the science and helping individual scientists.  I am very grateful to the CSLDF for arranging for these sessions.

We feel that legal defense does not just include blockbuster cases like Dr. Mann’s, but making sure that scientists have the opportunity to discuss their concerns with a legal expert before an issue becomes a problem.

Please consider donating to our summer fundraising drive to make these two programs possible. Donate at http://climatesciencedefensefund.org/. International donors can send a PayPal to info@peer.org (Be sure to put “CSLDF” in the memo box.) You can also receive a t-shirt with your donation by going to: http://climatesciencedefensefund.org/feature/buy-stuff/

Going to the AGU 2013 Fall Conference? If so mark your calendars for Thursday December 12 between 12:30 – 1:30. CSLDF and AGU will be hosting a special brown bag lunch event titled Facing Legal Attack: Scientists Tell Their Stories featuring a panel discussion with Drs. Andrew Dessler, Katharine Hayhoe, Michael Mann, Naomi Oreskes, Ben Santer, and Kevin Trenberth, along with a few legal experts.

More details will be posted as the conference approaches.

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Also see:

Global warming games – playing the man not the ball – Guardian

Climate Science Legal Defense Fund Summer Fundraiser – CSLDF Blog

Global warming games – playing the man not the ball – Skeptical Science

Want to Help Our Climate Scientists? It’s Simple: Here’s How – Climate Progress