First of all, if you haven’t watched Peter Sinclair’s excellent video “Unwinding Hide the Decline” yet, you need to check that out. It is an excellent summary of how some leading climate scientists have essentially been framed, and then their work vindicated and vindicated and vindicated by independent investigations. Here it is:
Now, let’s get back to the new story.
Dr. Ray Bradley, one of the lead authors of the famous (and, to some, incorrectly infamous) study that included the “hockey stick” temperature graph (again, watch the video above for more on that), has spoken out about the harassment he’s received and attempt of some politicians to thwart scientific and societal promise.
“Ray Bradley has now written a book detailing his experience as the target of the anti-science Tea Party Jihadists of the climate denial movement,” as Peter Sinclair writes.
Here’s more on the new book from the Boston Globe with a few story/link inserts from Peter Sinclair (PS):
Bradley tells the story of his run-in with this crew in his new book, “Global Warming and Political Intimidation: How Politicians Cracked Down as the Earth Heated Up.’’ It centers on his account of being harassed and threatened not only by bloggers and gadflies but by Representative Joe (“I apologize to BP” -PS) Barton of Texas and Senator James (“There have never been any gay people in my family” – PS) Inhofe of Oklahoma, both Republicans.
Bradley’s book describes the shock of being yanked out of the scholarly realm and into the arena of partisan politics. Of being investigated by Barton’s House Energy Committee, Bradley said, “You realize they have infinite power, and they can ruin you — and they would have, if not for the strength of Sherwood Boehlert,’’ the Republican Congressman from New York who stood up to Barton. “Boehlert’s words should be etched on the portals of every science building in the country,’’ writes Bradley, “next to a big image of a thumb pushing down on the balance of scientific inquiry: ‘Seeking scientific truth is too important to be impeded by political expediency. When it comes to scientific debates, Congress is all thumbs.’ ’’
Scientifically, “the hockey stick is a brick outhouse, very robust,’’ as Bradley put it. The reliability of his findings has been confirmed by more than a decade of testingand scrutiny by the field. And yet the campaign to discredit what he and almost all of his colleagues accept as the fact of human-influenced global warming has made significant gains in popular and political culture over the past decade. “They’ve manipulated the media brilliantly,’’ he said. “Inhofe put out this anti-IPCC report and coupled it with a call for 17 scientists to be indicted. It got on the front page of every newspaper.’’
Looks like an excellent book by an excellent scientists on very non-excellent political practices and harassment.
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