Besieged by Climate Deniers, A Scientist Decides to Fight Back
(A Summary)
Ora Major
Unit # 1 Written Assignment
LS526-02
Professor Brandy Kreisler
December 12, 2012
According to reporter and climate scientist, Michael Mann, he and other scientists are being hostilely confronted and unfairly treated because of the results of their research by critics or by those who do not choose to believe or want to accept that climate change or global warming is real and is caused by the harmful effects of man-caused greenhouse emission, also known as carbon monoxide (CO2). In Mann’s article, “Besieged by Climate Deniers: A Scientist Decides to Fight Back” greenhouse gases are destroying layers of the earth’s ozone or …show more content…
It is his hope and effort to expose what he believes to be the truth or a conspiracy by the scientist as the results of an investigation or as outlined in his book. To further refute the research and intrude upon privacy of scientists like Mann, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli tried to subpoena the personal correspondence of Mann and many other scientists during Mann’s time at the University of Virginia. Cuccinelli efforts failed before the Virginia Supreme Court. The witch hunt, as termed by Mann, cost an estimated $600,000 in private funds defending the personal rights or privacy of climate scientists. Additionally, other groups and individuals have gone so far as to use multiple methods of intimidations or scare tactics such as threatening e-mails, which include anonymous death threats, along with threats through the U.S. mail that included a powdery substance like Anthrax, identified later by the FBI as a hoax and leaving the carcasses of animals, such as a rat, on the doorstep of one of one of his fellow scientist or colleagues, all in an effort to scare or discourage the scientists like Mann. However, because of the serious, potentially deadly consequences of and their position and concern for the negative effects of greenhouse gases and subsequent global warming, scientists like Mann are breaking their silence.