Defamation in the news

Source: US climate scientist’s defamation case over online attacks finally comes to trial | US news | The Guardian

A lawsuit first instituted over 10 years ago, brought by an esteemed climate scientist over alleged defamation by a rightwing blogger and an analyst, goes to trial this week.

The 2012 court case was brought by the University of Pennsylvania earth and environmental scientist Michael Mann, who is alleging that online attacks on his work amount to defamation.

The litigation targets two writers: Rand Simberg, analyst at the rightwing thinktank Competitive Enterprise Institute, who published a piece comparing Mann to a convicted serial child molester, and the National Review blogger Mark Steyn, who in a blogpost favorably quoted Simberg and called Mann’s research “fraudulent”. (Mann originally went after both publishers as well, but in 2021 a court ruled that neither the Competitive Enterprise Institute nor National Review could be held responsible for the attacks.)

The case comes amid concerns that online abuse of climate scientists has increased in recent years while misinformation about the climate crisis is also on the rise.

The attacks on Mann came as part of a wider campaign against him by a network of climate skeptics connected to the fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch, experts have said.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which claims to fight “climate alarmism”, has financial ties to the Charles Koch Foundation, while the National Review regularly publishes articles dismissing climate concern science as alarmist and has also accepted Koch-linked funding.

After the renowned scientist co-published the famous “hockey stick” graph in 1998, which showed unprecedented global warming in the last century, a slew of groups in the Koch network also bombarded Mann with freedom of information requests. A Republican congressman, who was backed by a Pac established by Koch, also served him with a subpoena.​

High school history taught that the Salem Witch Trials ended when some successfully accused of being a witch sued for defamation. Then Sen Joseph McCarthy was answered, "Have you no shame?"

Please understand I didn't buy my Prius, BMW i3, or Tesla Model 3 as a climate statement. They were bought to make my miles cheaper.

Bob Wilson

 

Good Prius Friend, @tochatihu had the only other Prius with a 600 W(?) inverter and taught me that small, shop jacks are a much better option for changing a tire than a cheesy scissors jack. That was back in 2005-8 when he still wandered around this continent. We met online at the old GreenHybrid and he pointed me to PriusChat. Happily, we came to the same solution, Gen 1 Prius, by different paths. Mine were (are):

• Cheap miles - gas/diesel, oil, and maintenance makes driving too d*mn expensive.
• False accusations of being a "Green" - I took an online, orientation course from https://skepticalscience.com/ because I knew the critics were lying but didn't have the details. Now I do but still answer, "Cost of one gallon of gas gives me over 100 miles of driving around town."
• Hate liars and less patient with ignorance. But not my job to stay up because 'someone is wrong on the Internet.'

IMHO, suing the liars and propagandists for their false claims works for me. But there can be honest screw ups:
Bad news for climate contrarians – 'the best data we have' just got hotter

. . .
One of the groups that has promoted satellite measurements, and downplayed climate change is from the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH). In the past, they have falsely claimed that the atmosphere was cooling (it wasn’t, they had made a mistake). Over the years, people have found multiple errors in their work and data, and it seems every time an error was discovered, the satellites we revised warmer and in better agreement with thermometers and climate models. To counter the UAH group, another institution began processing satellite data (Remote Sensing Systems, RSS). The RSS group has been very helpful over the years finding and correcting errors in the UAH data.
. . .

. . .
For those who only follow climate science on the periphery, they may have heard phrases like “global warming stopped 15 years ago,” “climate models got it wrong,” “we don’t really know if it is warming,” etc. There is now no reason whatsoever to believe these claims. We who work in the field knew these assertions were baseless, but now hopefully the people making them will retract.​

I live in Huntsville and know the damage they try to commit: The Alabama Office of the State Climatologist :: Dr. John R. Christy

It is the role of the Office of State Climatology to provide weather and climate information to the public and private interests to improve decision making activities that affect environmental quality and the economic efficiency of the State. Activities include providing specific weather data for the State and for the world, developing plans to mitigate the economic impacts of weather and climate variability and providing consultation on the use, interpretation and availability of weather and climate information. The Alabama Office of the State Climatologist also directly engages in important societal debates such as global warming through workshops, congressional testimony and educational activities.

Dr. John Christy - State Climatologist
National Space Science and Technology Center
Room 4082
320 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, Alabama 35805​

Bob Wilson