Interview: Dr. Michael Mann, Climate War Veteran
If there was a medal for fighting the climate war, Dr. Michael Mann should probably get one.
…Dr. Michael Mann: That’s what book is really about. It’s about this massive disinformation campaign that has been funded by fossil fuel interests, advocates for the fossil fuel industry, front groups and organizations that have sought to manufacture this fake debate about whether or not climate change is real.
…I think in part that’s because there is so much pressure…there really is a machine, a very organized machine out there to make sure that when the NYT runs an article about climate change, you’ll be sure they will get thousands of angry emails from climate change deniers denouncing their (NYT) acceptance of the hoax of climate change. Ultimately their business model relies on advertising and so even the NYT is sensitive to that.
3p: Do you think what we have is more of a communication problem rather than a scientific one?MM: Yes. Sometimes you’ll hear critics say we can’t act until we’re certain, until there’s proof, but science doesn’t work that way. In my book I note that proof is reserved for mathematical theorems and alcoholic beverages. Scientists are skeptics by nature – there’s never been such thing as proof in science, but there’s the weight of evidence and we act on the weight of evidence. Why is it that when it comes to climate change, where there is as much scientific consensus about the reality of human caused climate change as there is about any scientific proposition, critics demand absolute proof?
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings and commented:
“there’s never been such thing as proof in science, but there’s the weight of evidence and we act on the weight of evidence. ”
NOT SO – IF WE ACTED ON THE WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE – MM wouldn’t be employed
Science is not as up in the air as Dr. Mann suggests. Although nobody understands it completely, Quantum Mechanics makes prediction that have been born out to many decimal places.
Dr. Mann’s claim of well funded campaigns against him seems more paranoia than fact. For example: Heartland Institute’s funding from Big something was in the neighborhood of $25,000 and Mr. McIntyre’s work was done on a shoestring budget. And McIntyre did prove, to my satisfaction, that Dr. Mann’s hockey stick is hooey.
If there ‘really is a machine’ for ‘denialists’, it would have been found by now. Only so many people can keep a secret, and it’s a very small number. Maybe the machine is hidden in the same place where Trenberth’s ‘missing heat’ goes.