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Dragging Science Through the Mud
July 19, 2005
When climate change skeptics stoop to childish name-calling, you know their case is growing weaker by the day.
Last month, Congressman Joe Barton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, opened an ill-conceived investigation of Dr. Michael Mann and two other scientists who have concluded, based on studies of tree rings, ice cores, and coral growth layers, that global average temperatures in the past century were far warmer than in preceding centuries. In climate change circles, this finding is known as the "hockey stick" -- temperatures have angled sharply upward, like the business end of the hockey sticks that NHL forwards use to hit pucks.
The hockey stick is one of many lines of evidence linking human activities to the rise in global average temperatures. Yet this one finding drives climate change skeptics berserk. Ideologues who cannot bear the thought that global warming is real have slammed Mann's work, even though his findings have been subject to rigorous peer review and have been validated by numerous other scientists. Mann's data and methodologies are available from public archives for any scientist who cares to check on his work.
A letter from 18 scientists, including members of the National Academy of Sciences, questioned the fishing expedition nature of Barton's inquiry, which reeks of both scientific illiteracy and boorish intimidation. Other scientists, including the head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, also have weighed in on Mann's behalf.
Politicians cheerfully ignore scientists when their conclusions do not fit political agendas. But they can't so easily brush off their peers. Loud fireworks erupted when Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, the chairman of the House Science Committee, wrote a scorching letter to Barton raising "strenuous objections" to Barton's "illegitimate investigation" of Mann and his colleagues.
It is highly unusual for one committee chairman to publicly take another committee chairman to task in so public and blunt a fashion. In this case, Barton deserves the slap from Boehlert, a congressman who takes science seriously and has proposed thoughtful legislation to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants.
When Boehlert's objections were made public, Barton's committee spokesman, Larry Neal, issued a smirking, sophomoric response, giggling that Barton's inquiry gave a "chill" to Boehlert and his "passion for global warming." Neal's verbal spitball was a buffoonish display of immaturity. Barton should tell his spokesman to either grow up or go find another job. Climate change is too important an issue to be trivialized and politicized by such clownish behavior.
Barton should take a cue from Senator Pete Domenici, the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, who is holding a serious hearing July 20 on climate change science. The Domenici hearing will feature testimony from a panel of experts with strong scientific and institutional credentials, including the chairman of the National Research Council and the head of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
