I was surprised to see this essay and poll on the Daily Kos tonight.
Don Mikulecky writes:
Michael Mann is a Modern Hero and we need to acknowledge that!
I have been both a scientist and a political activist for most of my 76 years. But the situation regarding Michael Mann is very different. I just finished a very moving experience reading The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines and I have lots more to say than I can fit in a single diary. So I will devote this diary to trying to convince you that this Mann is a hero. There are too few heroes among the scientific community because of the nature of what we do.
Michael Mann was not someone who chose his role. Military persons can anticipate the possibility of being in situations where acts of heroism are called for. Scientists are certainly not in the same situation. Or at least, they have not been for a long time. Galileo comes to mind and it was the Church then that made his life one of great sacrifice. In these times the situation has deteriorated so rapidly that few of us have had a chance to evaluate the impact of what is going on. Science is a threat to the dark forces that are moving to control us all. People like Carl Sagan and Stephen jay Gould were out there early on fighting against these dark forces. They did a lot for us. Rachael Carlson and many others were on the front lines.
Yet the situation with Professor Mann is something beyond all that. He has become a symbol for what our future is all about and he did not chose his role. No sane person would have. Read on below and I will try to paint a broad picture of how much is at stake and give you a perspective on how this one Mann has focused on the threat to all of us.
…
The full essay is here:
And, there is a poll at the end which has some surprising choices.
Update 3/14: One of the comments there is by somebody who posts here regularly, John Sully. He writes:
Anthony Watts posted about this over at his site and told the trolls to come and freep the poll. This is why year after year his site gets voted “Best Science Blog” or whatever.
Mr. Sully please point out exactly where in the 35 words I wrote (the rest are from Kos) in this essay I have “…told the trolls to come and freep the poll.” Otherwise sir, you are a liar. – Anthony
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Thing is; the so called missing computer program from Mann, is just a jazzed up version of Mann’s Tic Tac Toe game that he invented when he was in high school, I am serious, this is the real reason that he did not want give it out. Headlines: Mann hockey stick based on Tic Tac Toe” I still cant believe that I spent 10 bucks to read his stupid book. Know the enemy.
Gary Mount says: “Headline in DailyKos tomorrow: In a recent online poll, 75% of participants voted for Dr. Mann to keep his job. /sarc”
Brilliant, Gary. You have a great future ahead of you as a Climatology statistician.
I read the first few paragraphs & then started scanning (I’d already seen many of the block-quoted sections anyway); read the conclusion and thought “He says he’s a scientist – if he actually is, bet he’s a biologist.” I’d know that self-righteous sales-pitch style anywhere, and besides, he wrote admiringly of the mass-murderer, Rachel Carson.
Googled for a few minutes & tracked the Don to Virginia Commonwealth U. Physiology & Biophysics Dept., Emeritus Professor of.
Hmmm . . . surprisingly, he seems to have done some solid research in his younger days. Maybe the Don is in his second childhood. Both the content and tone of his essay scream gullible group-thinker.
So far the results are surprising:
The Poll results says it all! As for the comment re Troll activity – this seems to be the new alarmist tactic of dismissing any facts or feedback that does not fit the party line.
Whilst just as silly as other tactics – it is at least better than any sceptic being labelled Racist as I have been on several occaisions on the bizarre logic that if I was sceptical of AGW then I “obviously” did not care about others in the world and I was, ergo, Racist.
Now is the time more than ever to make the REAL science – the questioning science, the complete rejection of advocasy and consensus in science one of the worlds main priorities.
That said – how strange that the “consensus” as indicated by the Poll gives the results that it does! :0)
Perhaps there is something in the consensus thing after all!!! ;0/
Michael Mann
did not choose to became a symbol
0% 5 votes
has been attacked in many of the same ways that the President and John Kerry were
0% 1 votes
Is an outstanding scientist and human being
0% 4 votes
all of the above
1% 18 votes
is distorting evidence to prove his point
72% 1194 votes
should be fired from the university
25% 421 votes
1643 votes
If you link to this poll and vote, are you supplying your email address? Take care.
As there wasn’t an option of, “Is a thoroughly nasty piece of work” I voted for distorted data. BTW has anyone else noticed his cat-like eyes?
Current Poll results:
Michael Mann
did not choose to became a symbol
0% 4 votes
has been attacked in many of the same ways that the President and John Kerry were
0% 1 votes
Is an outstanding scientist and human being
0% 4 votes
all of the above
1% 17 votes
is distorting evidence to prove his point
72% 1106 votes
should be fired from the university
25% 394 votes
With a total of 1526 votes.
That’s 1500 negative votes (98.3% according to my calculator).
Disapointment! There was no option: Should be sued for crimes against humanity.
Mike Mann was an unlikely hero
Who tried to be a good peer-o
But his own hockey stick
Was undone by a “trick”
And reduced his net worth down to zero
Now 1744 out of 1775 for the last two options (1294 distorting, 450 should be fired). 98.25% not impressed with Mann, What an enjoyable start to the day (UK time)! 🙂
I find it funny when a clear consensus, as shown on their poll, is rejected when they don’t like the outcome.
In regard to the content of the Kos piece, there is nothing new, just a rehash of the usual stuff: massive funding by big oil; right wing conspiracy: uncritical acceptance of the words of their hero;yada yada yada.
Inaccurate, partisan, desperate stuff.
Current state of play, 2:00 AM Weds Mar 14th:
Gotta love it, every time these fools put up a poll, they learn what they don’t ever want to know. People ain’t buyin’ it.
97% of the respondents either say Mann is distorting evidence to prove his point, or that he should be fired.
w.
Whenever I look at sites of the pro CAGW variety I always end up feeling a mixture of exasperation and sadness for many of the commenters. Exasperated because no matter what you say and no matter how strong your evidence is to the contrary you know you will not shake their blind faith and they will come back with something like, “Oh it must be true because Michael/Gavin/Greenpeace etc say so”. Sad because many of these people are just ordinary folk who have been duped and are being used as cannon fodder by a certain brand of eco-extremist.
For anyone wanting to sign up to comment you will have to wait. Here is the message I got:
Just as a reminder, there is a 24-hour waiting period for making new comments and a one week waiting period for writing new diaries. This might seem like a long time, but if you’ve got valuable insight that’s worth sharing, it will be worth sharing once your waiting period is over.
@Ken Finney
“The claim we used inverted poll results is ludicrous. Our polling methods are insensitive to the sign of the data.”
Love that poll!
He’s currently got 31 positive votes out of 1869.
Thats a huge 16,586 parts per million.
Currently 1300 plus (including me) for distorting evidence and 400 plus for firing, combined 99% for those two options. I don’t think it’s a good policy for universities to fire academics on account of the quality research work, however poor that work may be. Academic fraud is another matter, but that doesn’t seem to me to be provenin the case of Mann. He’s just an arrogant overrated dunce.
Does KOS stand for Krock of S#%?!
Willis it wont last bet ya will be removed ASAP LOL
Looks like there really is a concensus!
Not really an opinion poll since Anthony released the enormous blog-firepower of WUWT on it.
Should Mann et al. ever start answering their critics with hard science we must be prepared to listen with open minds. In a quantum universe anything is possible.
It is not the job of a scientist to be a hero.
The job of a scientist is simply the advancement of science, nothing more and hopefully nothing less. Scientific integrity plays a significant role in achieving this goal.
I do not consider that advocay has a place in science but to the extent that it does, the role of advocacy in science should be limited to advocating the use of the highest scientific standards and integrity and exposing work which falls short of that standard, .