Cites nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research conducted while [Dr. Michael ] Mann— now director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State— was at UVA between 1999 and 2005.
From The Hook, it seems satirical YouTube videos will be the least of Dr. Mann’s worries now.
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No one can accuse Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of shying from controversy. In his first four months in office, Cuccinelli directed public universities to remove sexual orientation from their anti-discrimination policies, attacked the Environmental Protection Agency, and filed a lawsuit challenging federal health care reform. Now, it appears, he may be preparing a legal assault on an embattled proponent of global warming theory who used to teach at the University of Virginia, Michael Mann.
In papers sent to UVA April 23, Cuccinelli’s office commands the university to produce a sweeping swath of documents relating to Mann’s receipt of nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research conducted while Mann— now director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State— was at UVA between 1999 and 2005.
If Cuccinelli succeeds in finding a smoking gun like the purloined emails that led to the international scandal dubbed Climategate, Cuccinelli could seek the return of all the research money, legal fees, and trebled damages.
“Since it’s public money, there’s enough controversy to look in to the possible manipulation of data,” says Dr. Charles Battig, president of the nonprofit Piedmont Chapter Virginia Scientists and Engineers for Energy and Environment, a group that doubts the underpinnings of climate change theory.
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The Attorney General has the right to make such demands for documents under the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, a 2002 law designed to keep government workers honest.
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more at The Hook
h/t to Chip Knappenberger
I, too, am against witch hunts–especially those whose primary objective is not to find and punish the guilty but to provide TV time and press coverage for public officials. However, I am also afraid of the effects the policies recommended by the AGW alarmists will have on my children. Given the societal importance of getting the science right, I am for forcing advocates on both sides of showing all their publicly funded work.
If I were Dr. Mann (heaven forbid) and I had uncovered some “science” that I believed showed that the world will end unless we immediately invoke procedures A, B, C, etc., I would BEG people to examine my work to either confirm my conclusions or show me where I was wrong. The last thing I would do is hide my work from anyone, but especially from people expressing a sceptical view. Since such behavior is the opposite of Dr. Mann’s, I concluded a long time ago that Dr. Mann is either behaving abhorently or doesn’t believe his rhetoric, or both.
So although in principle I’m against witch hunts, I’m not convinced the Virginia AG’s action is a witch hunt. Even if it is, given the importance of the issue, I not only tolerate the Virginia AG’s action, I applaud it.
I am sick and tired of the activist AG’s (Spitzer, Cuomo, et al). I don’t care who their target is.
Wow, I didn’t realize WUWT had a Michael Mann fan club – but its good to see opposing views. George E. Smith, BillD, markinaustin, John Egan sound like they don’t know who Michael Mann and his role in the CAGW debacle.
As I posted on The Hook and for those un-initiated, Mann is the author of the hotly disputed Hockey Stick world temperature graph underpinning all catastrophic AGW theories.
Senate committees have been held, corrections published and books have been written about Mann’s alleged dishonest and possibly fraudulent Hockey stick temperature graph history: The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science (Independent Minds), A.W. Montford.
In short, Mann abolished a richly documented historical event of a Medieval Warm Period in about 1200 AD when temperatures were warmer than today, by relying only on limited tree ring historical temperature proxy data to show that today’s temperatures are higher than in the last 2000 years and thus similarly rising CO2 levels can be modeled as being responsible for the warming. The proven statistical faults, hiding the decline with Jones (of failure of tree proxies after 1960), avoidance of release of data and cherry picking of tree sets are a study in what’s wrong with conviction driven research.
A short summary is here- http://joannenova.com.au/2009/12/fraudulent-hockey-sticks-and-hidden-data/
The legal probe is not about a single possibly mistaken grant application, it is about 20 year history of alleged distortion of science, which threatens to trash the world economies and science itself. After 2 years of utter frustration at unaccountability by scientists (how many have ‘lost’ original data – but hey, just trust my adjusted data) I am ready to do a deal with the devil himself.
Regards
“””nevket240 says:
April 29, 2010 at 4:32 pm
George E. Smith says:
April 29, 2010 at 4:17 pm
‘It seems that Scientists who fabricate stuff. and are found to have done so do tend to get quite harshly treated’
George. If they do not like fleas they should not sleep with dogs. People who bend over to enhance their careers are the problem with AGW. CO2 is not the issue, immoral conduct is the issue and its called dishonesty.
regards “””
I believe I made myself quite clear that I don’t abide scientific malfeasance. and I thought I said that those who do so tend to be
thoroughly dealt with. But I don’t encourage going overboard.
I also don’t condone the behavior of drivers who drive in the bike lane before they get to the dotted line zone; where it is legal; and in California mandatory if you are making a right turn.
I believe if you weigh the actions of politicians vis-a-vis the climate question with those of the scientists involved; you will find that the politicians are a lot worse than all but the most agressive of the scientists.
My work is always subject to criticism from both my colleagues and from my employers; I welcome that from my colleagues, because after all; the aim is to drain the swamp; which is more important than who should do that; and my boss is expecting me to make enough profit for the company; so he can keep on employing me. Both my employer; and our customers expect that what I do should work more or less the way I told them it would; so skullduggery wouldn’t remain undiscovered for long; and if I did it; I would know about it; and I am my worst critic.
This is absolute madness. Is Cuccinelli going to pronounce on tree rings or principal component analysis?
Are we going to intimidate scientists into not approaching sensitive issues?
Total insanity.
Mann’s shenanigans pale in comparison to those of Hanson at NASA. While Mann’s manipulations have wasted millions, Hanson’s shoddy methodology has wasted billions.
I suggest that persons of their ilk should not be punished if they fully disclosure their misdeeds in “Nature” a once proud journal, now a propaganda arm of socialist Germany.
Some of you aren’t getting it. Misappropriating public money is BAD. I have seen professors at my alma mater, NCSU, terminated for misappropriating merely hundreds of dollars. The SBI was involved. I can name names. We’re talking hundreds of thousands here….
Point: whatever you do, don’t screw around with public money….ever.
He has to be held to account. If he attempts to delay the process then that is just further evidence that he has something to hide. Unimaginable amounts of public money are at stake here, your money. CAGW is fraud.
You can fund grants that produce garbage as well as useful results. It is the funding agency that decides which to fund. Was Mann painting garbage as fertilizer in his grant proposals?
I wonder how many of you have read university science grant budgets? Most of the money goes to support graduate students, postdocs and technical assistants. If a professor only has an academic year salary (only paid for 9 or 10 months) grants can pay a month or two of regular salary for summer pay. Grants also cover publication costs, travel to one or two meetings per year and other expenses such as computers, supplies etc. Universities usually charge about 60% of salaries as “indirect costs” which contribute to the admistrative and building costs of the university. One important criterion for getting a grant is the productivity from past work. This does not mean whether a particular hypothesis was supported. It does mean that results were published in highly selective and high profile journals. Many scientist have distinquished careers without a single publication in Nature or Science.
If reviewers who are expects in the field found Mann’s manuscripts important and convincing enough for publication in Science and Nature, how is the AC going to provide evidence to the contrary? Presumably Mann would need to take a few weeks off from teaching and research to comply with the AG demands. Thus, compliance with the AG’s program would result in a loss in the areas of reseach and teaching.
I am glad to see a lot of people thinking this whole situation through, in the framework of the bigger picture of a potential witch hunt. Maybe it is , may be it isn’t , but put the show on the other foot. What if it were a left wing politico coming after Anthony, in purely a witch hunt mode? No one would be too stoked then. This definitely smells a bit like a witch hunt, which is really no good, regardless of your politics. That being said, I do hope that there is some substance behind this and that it isn’t purely political & if there is substance that Mann pays accordingly.
It took 10 years to clear up the under aged girl in the 2000 olympics. The parents could have been honest in 10 days.
I have been in legal cases for medical malpractice. Don’t say the lawyers can’t investigate what they haven’t studied. This is the first real inquiry Mann faces and Jones has not faced one.
It is a confrontation Lisa Jackson will face one day. 500,000 in grants is no different that lying on a 500,000 dollar home loan. It is about time. Now my attitude is not about revenge. It is about someone walking publically into court under oath and telling us all why they want to be a lwbreaker and refuse to respond to FOIA. Why did Mann want to destroy records and why does he admit he has lost the heat and can’t explain the decline.
They other fake inquiries didn’t ask the correct questions. Mann [may have] cheated to obtain grants and it is a very broad reason why you really do not want to do business with the governments. Spitzer fought companies as a method of shake down for money. This is very different case. From my professional point of view, this is really the first time for Mann to get worried.
Steve McIntyre discusses grant conditions and policies here:
http://climateaudit.org/2005/02/27/data-policy-1-us-global-change-research-program/
Grants are contracts and tend to include specific binding legal requirements. What has happened with climate science does not need peer review to see if the researchers lived up to the conditions of the grants. The question becomes. “What were the specific requirements for each grant and did the researcher live up to these requirements for each grant.” This review needs a lawyer.
I support Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s efforts.
Maybe if we actually held the AGW snake oil salesmen accountable for their actions they would be better stewards of the people’s money. When the money and fame and air tickets to Bali fell like rain they had every reason to maintain the AGW house of cards by all possible means and they did so for their own aggrandizement.
Unfortunately, the damage they have done to countries, economies, people and science may be incalculable.
I say go get him Ken!
The ROI is well worth it if malfeasance is found. Future agitators will think twice and the grants will be scrutinized even further.
If Mann’s work was honest, he should have nothing to hide. It is past time we found out the truth.
I don’t like witch hunts either but consider that AGW has an impact measured in the trillions of dollars. We need to know all the facts. The Mann data is a high profile component of claimed proof of AGW. Given that there is well founded suspicion that something could be amiss in the Mann data it is reasonable to require full disclosure. The problem from what I can see is that Mann is doing everything he can to obstruct access to such data. When two previous investigations into his hockey stick both found reason to discredit the findings he did not respond in a way one would expect a scientist to respond. He brazened it out and indeed continues to advocate his findings.
We have seen the outcomes of peer based investigations with the events surrounding the Hadley Research Centre climategate investigation. Given the people appointed to the investigation had previously declared their belief in AGW, the suggestion of a conflict of interest leading to a desire to see the University vindicated, the very restricted group of people interviewed (all from the AGW camp) and the extremely superficial report there are again grounds to be suspicious of the impartiality of these investigations.
If gentle methods of arriving at the truth do not work, eventually someone is going to use more forceful means. This is entirely predictable and if you do not want it to happen co-operate with the gentler approaches. Thus while I don’t subscribe to witch hunts and think retribution, if warranted, is best left to his peers I do believe we need the truth and given the current situation that can only be assured by an really impartial investigation whose only goal is the truth. If the outcome of these actions is such an investigation and if should happen that the findings are damaging to Dr Mann then I would argue that the wellbeing of the innocent public outweighs the outcomes for Dr Mann. Maybe he has nothing to hide and will be vindicated, However, he must know whether he has anything to fear or not and if he does, then to have forced the issue to this point is very stupid on his part. If you play hardball, sooner or later you will find a worthy opponent. I am not sure is is justifiable to cry foul when that happens.
Here is an interesting read,
David Suzuki
The foremost environmentalist in Canada, and a man who has gained international recognition in the fight against global warming, David Suzuki received more first-place rankings than the second and third places combined.
When asked his thoughts about placing first, Suzuki displayed the trademark humility that no doubt helped him take the top spot. “I am flabbergasted,” he said. “It is an enormous responsibility to live up to that trust.
I don’t get you guys who want to go soft on Mann. I don’t see him as being a stupid fool, but other than through complete stupidity, how could he have come up with that MWP-ignoring “hockey stick” — except by design. That “stick” was designed for public consumption, for manipulating the force of public opinion. It was a linchpin in the whole argument that got CAGW hysteria going.
Maybe there is a better way to publicly shine the light of day on Mann’s schtick, but so far it hasn’t surfaced.
Count me out of this crusade/witch-hunt. I’m in the heretic camp. The angry mob mentality is not my way; it’s not THE way. It’s just plain wrong in too many ways to list.
No, folks. Just no. Not the way. The way of corrupting and politicizing sciences is THEIR way, not ours.
I smell trolls.
Yes, most of you don’t get it. Commonwealth of VA paid Mann for science, not political science. The AG investigation is more about fraudulent representation than misappropriation of funds. Is it not wrong for someone to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in government grants just to submit a canned report where the conclusions are pre-determined?
mpaul says: April 29, 2010 at 5:22 pm
“But because he has stubbornly refused to release his data, code and methods”
Do you guys even bother to look before coming out with this stuff?
Here is the complete data and code for one of his recent papers.
Nick
1. It is an excerpt of an article so I don’t appreciate the accusatory tone
2. This has nothing to do with his current papers. It has everything to do with MBH98 done while Mann was at UVA
3. You could do well to heed the admonisment you just published
4. If Mann failed to follow procedure at that time, we as US taxpayers have every right to investigate. As a non US citizen this does not concern you.
Pathetic whitewashes by various official inquires both in U.S. and Britain have emboldened Climate Cultists to continue pushing their CO2 propaganda scam. AGW is garbage in/garbage out (GIGO) from Day One– not right, not even wrong, just Warmist bumpf propagated in bad faith under false pretenses for the sole purpose of financing junk-science assaults by Luddite sociopaths such as Briffa, Hansen, Jones, Mann, Trenberth et al.
Witch-hunt? We’d say, a long past due calling-to-account of those who since 1988 have with malice aforethought abused the public trust at terrible cost, not only to the governmental fisc but to the integrity of scientific enterprise. Mann of course will offer every self-serving excuse imaginable; deny, obfuscate, smear opponents, as if he reigned like Eric Holder over a tribal fiefdom of hyper-politicized jacks-in-office, justifying corrupt incompetence by any and all means.
Nothing one can say adequately characterizes Green Gangsters of Mann’s ilk. Once an upstart prosecutor ferrets out the facts, disinterested parties can begin to draw conclusions.