One Mann’s Opinion

As a general rule, you never want to be mentioned in court. Particularly a foreign court to which you have no ready access.

Not saying he’s mousy, but Michael Mann spent his childhood burrowing into cheese shops

But that rule goes out the window when the mentioning in question is by hyperbolic hockey stick climateer Michael Mann, whose defamation trial against the great Mark Steyn is finally underway in Washington DC.

As author and documentarian Ann McElhinney reports, the jury was immediately treated to Mann’s history of wild smears and accusations:

Jury heard he emailed to colleagues accusing Dr Judith Curry, former head of Georgia Tech’s earth and atmospheric science department, of “one of the oldest slurs against successful women … sleeping her way to the top”.

He falsely claimed that when Prof Curry was a PhD student she slept with her professor. In court, he was forced to admit every fact in the email was false. All because she disagreed with his hockey stick graph that claimed 1000 years flat temps and then catastrophic warming.

In fact Curry was a tenured professor when she arrived at Penn State, and started a relationship with a colleague who had been separated from his wife for over a year. They later married.

Court transcript:

MANN: "Yes, I readily acknowledge I got those facts … wrong." Mann declined to apologize to Prof Curry or her husband who were both in court.

Court transcript:

STEYN: “In fact, the upshot of your … email is one of the oldest slurs against successful women. Isn't it? That she just slept her way to the top?”

It doesn’t take much to provoke Mann. All you need to do is take issue with his precious hockey stick, and the angry academic absolutely unloads:

In an email to colleagues Mann described Steve McIntyre, who published peer-reviewed papers pointing out errors in his hockey stick graph, as “human filth” and an “asshole,” and later compared his use of statistics to “white supremacy".

Mann also said in emails that McIntyre and University of Guelph economist Ross McKitrick’s paper criticising the hockey stick graph was “pure scientific fraud.” The paper was published in the same journal that published the Mann's second hockey stick graph.

Happily, because it further reveals Mann’s poor self-control, my own character assessment was also included:

Mann doesn’t slime just members of his own profession. He called Australian journalist Tim Blair a “misogynistic ogre” and “one of the worst people in the world” who “better hope there isn’t a hell”.

Professor Hockey Stick was apparently upset by this column, which described him as “beady-eyed, except beads are usually larger”. Kind of appropriate, given his climate exaggerations, that Mann’s response was so overheated.

The trial continues. Click here for frequent podcast updates. For those late to events, it might be best to begin with Steyn's opening statement and John Hinderaker's trial outline.