Michael Mann sued after two conservative writers liked his work to acts of infamous child molester Jerry Sandusky.

A jury on Thursday awarded $1 million to climate scientist Michael Mann, who sued a pair of conservative writers 12 years ago after they compared his depictions of global warming to a convicted child molester.

Mann, a professor of climate science at the University of Pennsylvania, rose to fame for a graph first published in 1998 in the journal Nature that was dubbed the “hockey stick” for its dramatic illustration of a warming planet.

The work brought Mann wide exposure but also many skeptics, including the two writers Mann took to court for comments that he said affected his career and reputation in the U.S. and internationally.

“It feels great,” Mann said Thursday after the six-person jury delivered its verdict. “It’s a good day for us, it’s a good day for science.”

  • @[email protected]
    34•5 months ago

    It’ll be a good day for science when we collectively take climate change seriously. Until then it’s all political grandstanding.

    • BlanketsWithSmallpoxEnglish
      10•5 months ago

      Kinda like all the work Joe Biden has been doing for 11 years in the executive?

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_policy_of_the_Joe_Biden_administration

      On his first day in office, Biden began to make policy changes to protect the environment. He began revising and strengthening the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and ordered a number of executive orders aimed at reviewing or undoing the environmental policies of the former administration, including removal of some wildlife protections,[8] the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline,[9] and drilling for oil and gas on federal lands.[10] He promised to end and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030.[11] As a first step in recognizing the impact of climate change on less developed nations—an impact which is largely the result of years of environmental damage caused by nations which have prospered—Biden signed an executive order to study the effects of climate change’s impact on migration, including “options for protection and resettlement.”[12] Biden appointed Pete Buttigieg as the Secretary of Transportation, and he is expected to work with the administration to reduce carbon emissions with plans such as improved public transportation, building a national network of electric vehicle chargers, and other strategies to reduce emissions.[13]

      The Biden administration delivered a tax plan to congress that aims to start winding back fossil fuel subsidies, replacing the subsidies with incentives to start producing green energy.[14] His proposed budget includes a 30% increase in clean energy research and development, $2 billion to be invested in green energy projects and $6.5 billion to lend to rural communities in support of additional green energy, power storage, and transmission projects.[15] Biden has ordered the amount of energy produced from offshore wind turbines to be doubled by 2030.[16][17]

      In August 2022, Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes the largest federal climate change investment in American history ($391 billion).[18][19] With this law and additional federal and state measures, the USA can fulfill its pledge in Paris agreement: 50% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by the year 2030.[20][21]

    • @IamdannoEnglish
      3•5 months ago

      If we are still in the “someday, when we take it serious” timeline, then it’s probably too late anyway.