Chronicle of Higher Education Allows Smear-Job on Climate Scientist

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)

Appearing below is my letter of complaint sent to Philip Semas, President and Editor in Chief of Chronicle of Higher Education. I urge all of you to also send a letter or email message (CHE contact information). We must not allow scientists to be attacked, especially in a highly respected venue such as CHE. Consider the words of Edmund Burke above and act.

Why has Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) allowed one of its bloggers, Peter Wood, to smear noted climate scientist Dr. Michael E. Mann? Woods’ latest post, “A Culture of Evasion”, quite inappropriately compares Penn State’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky child rape case with that of its investigation of stolen emails that included messages from Dr. Mann. (Previous posts by Wood also maligning Dr. Mann include “Bottling Up Global Warming Skepticism” and “Climate Thuggery”.) Multiple international investigations, including one from the National Science Foundation, have carefully reviewed Dr. Mann’s email messages and have found no misconduct whatsoever. (For more on these investigations see http://bit.ly/hxdKKJ)

It is clear that Peter Wood finds addressing human-caused climate change inconvenient to his world-view and he hopes that somewhere in Dr. Mann’s emails there might be proof that the world is not rapidly warming so we will not need to dramatically reduce our carbon emissions. I wonder if Peter Wood also thinks a careful perusal of Sir Isaac Newton’s personal letters might end up disproving gravity thus allowing us to fly without spending money for an airplane ticket?

I have no issue with CHE allowing him to display his lack of understanding of well-understood science on CHE’s blog. After all, we are all entitled to our own opinions no matter how wrong they are and commenters on his blog have repeatedly tried to educate Mr. Wood about the settled fact of global warming. Isn’t that what the E in CHE is all about?

What is not acceptable is for CHE to allow Peter Wood or any other author to smear a well-respected scientist because of the writer’s political beliefs. It must be quite embarrassing to CHE that one of its bloggers is using a child rape case to achieve political ends and doing so under the mantle of CHE. CHE can repair the damage by immediately removing the article, admonishing Peter Wood, and issuing a public apology to Dr. Mann.

Sincerely,

Scott A. Mandia, Professor/Asst. Chair – Physical Sciences
T-202 Smithtown Science Bldg.
Suffolk County Community College
533 College Road
Selden, NY 11764

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Anthony Watts’ Minions Attack Mike Mann and Make Mockery of Amazon Review Process

Sigh. I knew it was going to happen eventually. It is a shame that the science deniers are much better organized than the rational people. As of 8 AM this morning, Dr. Michael E. Mann’s latest book The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines had 15 reviews, all of which were 5 stars. My review (posted below) had 58 out of 59 votes for being helpful.

Enter climate science denier Anthony Watts whose blog has never missed an opportunity to smear a climate scientist.  This morning, Watts posted about Mike Mann’s new book and within hours the Amazon reviews turned ugly. Of course, Watts tells his readers “While I realize that many people don’t want to buy this book, please don’t pull a Peter Gleick and do reviews apparently in absentia.” referring to his false claim that National Academy of Sciences member Dr. Peter Gleick posted a 1 star review of Donna Laframboise’s book without reading it. I also read that book and it deserved the 1 star.  Watts has a history of doing this.

As of 7 PM EST tonight there are now eleven 1 star reviews and all of the 5 star reviews are being sabotaged by vote downs and negative comments. My detailed review is suddenly not helpful – only favored by 87/172 people.  The top 1 star review is highlighted below:

1 Star Reviewer Shows His Lack of Understanding of Basics

Wow!  This reviewer packs quite a few climate myths into the first paragraph.  Can you say Dunning-Kruger?  The debunking of these myths can be found by visiting Skeptical Science’s Arguments page and clicking on #71, #6, and #12.

These bad reviews and vote downs are an obvious hit job on Dr. Mann’s book by Anthony Watts’ anti-science minions. Sadly, the persecution of Mann continues and that is why people need to read this book. After reading one will see that this childish attack on the Amazon review system is just the tip of the iceberg for those who find scientific facts to be inconvenient.

Climate Scientists Under Attack: Fear Not. Reinforcements Have Arrived.

Joshua Wolfe and I are very pleased to announce the official launch of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) home page. CSLDF is now a project of the non-profit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The official press release announcing this strategic alliance can be read here and here as well as in this post below.

Please spread the word to all so that CSLDF can grow its support base. Cross-post the press release, FaceBook it, Tweet it, e-mail it, etc. to all of your contacts and tell them to do the same.  Let us send a strong message to those that have harrassed and attacked our scientific experts and dissuaded countless others from entering the field of climate science.

Read on for the press release…

Climate Science Legal Defense Fund – Spread the Word & Logo

Climate Science Legal Defense Fund Logo

Update (01/22/12): Visit the new home page for Climate Science Legal Defense Fund at http://climatesciencedefensefund.org/.  If you are using the CSLDF banner above on a Web page please edit the link to point to the new URL.

Update (12/21/11): The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) is now an affiliate of the non-profit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) so I have removed the Pay Pal button from the donation page.  Donations are now tax-deductible and can be sent to PEER.  For those with a Pay Pal account, please send donations to info@peer.org and be sure to record “CSLDF donation” in the memo field.  Donations can also be mailed to PEER at the address below.  Be sure to record “CSLDF donation” in the memo line of your check.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
2000 P Street, NW
Suite 240
Washington, DC 20036

John Abraham and I are grateful for the generous response to our appeal for legal defense fund support. We are happy to inform everyone that we have met, and exceeded the initial goal of $10,000. This appeal is a great start for a long-term plan to develop a permanent fund for defending scientists against these attacks. Consequently, we are working to develop a funding structure that allows donations to be made to a 501c3 non-profit entity.

All funds that are in excess of those currently needed will be placed into this entity for future use defending climate scientists. We believe that the existence of this fund will send a strong message that groups like ATI cannot bully scientists.

Please consider adding the logo above to your blogs, web pages, Face Book posts,etc. The image URL is:

http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/global_warming/images/defense_fund_logo.gif

and the link to direct people to is:

https://profmandia.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/donation/

It will take time to establish the 501c3 so in the meantime please keep sending your support via PayPal or personal checks.

GOOD NEWS: A positive development has already resulted from this effort in the case of Dr. Mike Mann.

On Friday, a Virginia judge ruled to stay the current court order indefinitely, with a followup hearing to take place on Nov. 1st. Chris Horner and the fossil-fuel front group ATI cannot view the exempted personal emails from 39 climate scientists.  This is definitely a victory, which wouldn’t have happened without the funding to intervene.

For background on this case, see: http://climscifoi.blogspot.com/2011/09/ati-uva-intervention.html and my letter to U.VA President Teresa Sullivan.