Inhofe Calls for Criminal Investigation of Climate Scientists
Inhofe accused of turning climate row into 'McCarthyite witch-hunt'
The Guardian (U.K.), March 1, 2010
The US
Congress's most ardent global warming sceptic is being accused of
turning the row over climate science into a McCarthyite witch-hunt by
calling for a criminal investigation of scientists.
Climate
scientists say Sen. James Inhofe’s call for a criminal investigation
into American as well as British scientists who worked on the UN
climate body's report or had communications with East Anglia's climate
research unit represents an attempt to silence debate on the eve of new
proposals for a climate change law.
Inhofe's
document ends by naming 17 "key players" in the controversy about CRU's
stolen emails, including the Britons Phil Jones and Keith Briffa.
"I think
this is like a drag net, just to try and catch everyone whose name
happens to be on this list. It's guilt by association and I thought
those days were over 50 years ago," said Michael Oppenheimer, of
Princeton University, who is on the list of 17 scientists. "It looks
like a McCarthyite tactic: pull in anyone who had anything to do with
anyone because they happened to converse with some by email, and
threaten them with criminal activity."
Inhofe is
also accused of further fuelling a spike in hate mail and politically
motivated freedom of information requests in the three months since the
emails of climate scientists were stolen from the University of East
Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.
Rick
Piltz, a former official in the US government climate science programme
who now runs the Climate Science Watch website, said Inhofe and others
were getting in the way of scientific work. "Scientists who are working
in federal labs are being subjected to inquisitions coming from
Congress," he said. "There is no question that this is an orchestrated
campaign to intimidate scientists."
Michael
Mann, a scientist at Penn State University who is on Inhofe's list of
17, said that he had seen a sharp rise in hostile email since November.
"Some of
the emails make thinly veiled threats of violence against me and even
my family, and law enforcement authorities have been made aware of the
matter," he told the Guardian.
He said the attacks appeared to be a co-ordinated effort. "Some of them look cut-and-paste."
A
university investigation largely cleared Mann of misconduct for his
connection to the East Anglia controversy. However, a rightwing group
in Pennsylvania are demanding further action.
Gavin
Schmidt, a climate scientist at Nasa's Goddard Institute who is also on
the list of 17, said he had seen an increase in freedom of information
act requests. "In my previous six years I dealt with one FoIA request.
In the last three months, we have had to deal with I think eight," he
said. "These FoIAs are fishing expeditions for potentially embarrassing
content but they are not FoIA requests for scientific information."
He said
Inhofe's call for a criminal investigation created an atmosphere of
intimidation. "The idea very clearly is to let it be known that should
you be a scientist who speaks out in public then you will be
intimidated, you will be harassed, and you will be threatened," he
said. "The idea very clearly is to put a chilling effect on scientists
speaking out in public and to tell others to keep their heads down.
That kind of intimidation is very reminiscent of other periods in US
history where people abused their position."
Other scientists on Inhofe's list of 17 admitted they were disturbed by the threat of criminal prosecution.
"I am
worried about it, I have to say," said Raymond Bradley, director of the
climate science research centre at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst, who is also on the list of 17. "You can understand that this
powerful person is using the power of his office to intimidate people
and to harass people and you wonder whether you should have legal
counsel. It is a very intimidating thing and that is the point."
Inhofe,
an Oklahoma Republican on the Senate's environment and public works
committee, released a document last week suggesting scientists be
investigated for breaking three laws and four government regulations.
The
document, produced by members of Inhofe's staff, recycles now familiar
sceptic arguments about the stolen emails from East Anglia and the
mistakes in the IPCC report.
But
climate scientists say the report takes the campaign to a new level by
threatening criminal prosecution. The report calls for the inspector
generals of all US government agencies touching on the environment to
investigate the scientists as a first step to possible prosecution.
"The
minority staff of the Senate committee on environment and public works
believe the scientists involved violated fundamental ethical principles
governing taxpayer-funded research and, in some cases, may have
violated federal laws," the report says.
A
spokesman for Inhofe rejected the charges of a witch-hunt. But he said
a criminal investigation was warranted and that it should not
necessarily be limited to the 17 "key players".
"We are
not saying that there are 17 scientists we should be calling
criminals," said Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for Inhofe. "I'm not putting
a number on 17."
He added:
"The bottom line though is that there was manipulation of data and it
appears that they violated a law." "In terms of what these email
demonstrate, there are possible criminal violations here with FoIA and
other laws."
Senate
leaders are expected to release new proposals for action on climate
change as early as this week. Environmentalists fear the proposal,
crafted by a troika of Democratic, Republican, and Independent
senators, would weaken a climate change bill passed by the house last
June.
The
Washington Post reported at the weekend that the senators could scrap a
cap-and-trade bill that was the core of the house bill and bring in
more limited measures.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
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