THE FATE OF THE PLANET IS IN THE HANDS OF CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENTISTS



…The effects of climate change and global warming

 

These scientists have had to deal with threats to their life and their families.

 

Michael E. Mann is a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. He co-authored, with Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles, “The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy.”

 

 

But over the years, this supporter of climate change science has had to deal with threats to his life and his family that at one time actually caused his Penn State colleagues to observe police tape stretched across his university office door.

 

Back in August of 2010, he had been opening mail at his desk when a dusting of white powder fell from the inside the folds of a letter. He immediately dropped the letter, held his breath and slipped swiftly out of the door.  He then went to the bathroom and scrubbed his hands. Afterwards, he called the police.

 

It turned out to only be harmless cornstarch, not anthrax. And it was just one of a long series of threats he has received since the late 1990s.  This was when his research had illustrated the unprecedented nature of global warming that produced an upward-trending temperature curve likened to that of a hockey stick. Many of us saw this proof of warming that had come from the former Vice President Al Gore, upon winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Earlier versions of this story had reported that former Vice President Al Gore won an Academy Award for the film "An Inconvenient Truth," in 2007.  Actually the director got that award for "Best Documentary".

 

However, Mr. Mann has still faced hostile investigations by conservative politicians, including demands to be fired from his job, threats against his life and threats against his family members.  Fortunately, those threats have diminished in recent years, as man-made climate change has become recognized as an overwhelming scientific consensus and as climate science has received the support of the federal government under President Obama.

 

But with the coming Trump administration, Mr. Mann’s and his colleagues and are setting themselves for a renewed onslaught of intimidation, from inside and outside our government. It is expected to be bad for their work and very bad for the planet.

 

Just look at Mr. Trump so far.  He has famously dismissed global warming as a, “Chinese hoax and a big scam for a lot of people to make a lot of money.”  He has even framed his position on climate change as “nobody really knows — it’s not something that’s so hard and fast.” He has vowed to cancel US participation in the Paris climate agreement and threatened to block the Clean Power Plan, a measure to reduce carbon emissions in the power sector.

 

The strong anti-science bent of his so called advisers is totally ominous. Among the members of his Environmental Protection Agency transition team are some of the most notorious climate change deniers. One adviser has threatened to cut NASA’s entire climate research program , disparaging it as being “heavily politicized.”

 

Trump’s nominee for energy secretary, Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, wrote in his 2010 book that “we have been experiencing a cooling trend”.  What he didn’t mention was that in reality, 2016 will go down as the third consecutive record-breaking year for global high temperatures.  He also didn’t mention that as governor of Texas, his administration removed all references to climate change from a report on rising sea levels.

 

Trump’s proposed interior secretary, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), plays down climate change as “not a proven science” and has a dismal record on the environment, voting again and again in favor of the fossil fuel industry.  Rex Tillerson, Trump’s choice for Secretary of State, represents those interests even more directly as the chief executive of ExxonMobil.

 



 Michael Mann-Climate Scientist

 

And let’s not leave out Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma and Trump’s pick for EPA administrator. When it comes to fossil fue and climate inaction, Pruitt checks all the boxes. He has received substantial campaign funding from the oil and gas industry and is a self-professed “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.” Among the various lawsuits he has brought against the agency is his current suit against the Clean Power Plan. Talk about letting the fox, into the henhouse.

 

The proof in the pudding, is the disrespect that Scott Pruitt has displayed for science. Consider this statement from a commentary he published this year in National Review: “Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind. That debate should be encouraged — in classrooms, public forums, and the halls of Congress.” The assertion here betrays profound ignorance of the state of our scientific knowledge which is that climate change is real, human-caused and already disruptive. Even more disgusting, is that Pruitt actively encourages others to promote that ignorance, even to children, who will most bear the brunt of unmitigated climate change.

 

This is all made very clear as to where Trump is headed by Trump transition team’s alarming request that the US Energy Department identify employees and contractors who have been involved in climate meetings during the Obama administration.  The department of course immediately responded with a comment that they do not identify specific individuals working on specific projects.

 

Still, the request was enough to prompt a massive effort in the US, Canada and parts of Europe and Asia to archive all government climate data in ways that would protect it from the Trump administration tampering.  It was enough to motivate Mann’s fellow climate scientists at an annual meeting in San Francisco and to stage a rally in support of science. “This is a frightening moment,” Harvard professor Naomi Oreskes told the crowd. “We have seen in the last few weeks how the reins of the federal government are being handed over to the fossil fuel industry.”

 

All the scientists are afraid that four, possibly eight years of climate denial and delay might commit the planet to not just a few feet, but yards, of sea level rise, massive coastal flooding made worse by more frequent Katrina and Sandy-like storms.  And historic deluges, and summer after summer of devastating heat and drought across the country.

 

They are also in fear of an era of McCarthy type attacks on their work and their integrity.  This is easy to envision, because they’ve seen it all before. They know they could be hauled into Congress to face hostile questioning from climate change deniers.  They know they could be publicly vilified by politicians.  They know they could be at the receiving end of federal subpoenas demanding their personal emails. They also know they could see their research grants audited or totally revoked.

 

Mr. Mann faced all of those things a decade ago.  And it was during the last time the Republicans had full control of our government…just as they do today.

 

Before an important climate bill vote in 2005, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla) sometimes called “Senator Snowball” for his stunt introducing a snowball on the Senate floor as fake evidence against global warming.  He personally attacked Mr. Mann by name in that Senate speech, maligning his research methods and his findings.

 

Later that year, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), then chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,  like Inhofe, a leading recipient of fossil fuel funding.  He is also known for his apology to BP after the massive Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  He threatened a congressional subpoena against Mr. Mann to obtain all the correspondence, notes and back-of-the-napkin scribbles spanning his entire career.

 

Mr. Mann has been through roughly a dozen investigations prompted by climate change deniers. Each time, he has been exonerated. Investigators and they found that his methods were sound and his data was replicable.  And, yes he has been recognized by the scientific community with numerous awards and accolades for his work. But unfortunately, time has been lost, expenses have been incurred and he has had to endured abuse and vilification.  He has received threats of violence and received email warnings that “the public will come after you,” suggesting that he’ll find himself “six feet under” and that they hope to eventually read that he had “committed suicide.”

 

He worries especially that younger scientists might be deterred from going into climate research or any topic where scientific findings could prove inconvenient to powerful vested interests. As a person who has weathered so many attacks, he continues to urge these young scientists to have courage.

 

The fate of the planet hangs in the balance.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016