The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars
The ongoing assault on climate science in the United States has never been more aggressive, blatant, or widely publicized than in the case of Michael E. Mann and his colleagues' Hockey Stick graph, a clear and compelling visual presentation of scientific data demonstrating that global temperatures have risen in tandem with increased industrialization and the use of fossil fuels. This was a simple graph that, at a look, represented a danger to large corporate energy interests and those who do their bidding in politics. The stakes were just too great to ignore the Hockey Stick, and thus a relentless assault on a body of knowledge and the researchers whose work established its scientific foundation started.
The Hockey Stick first appeared in a UN study on climate change in 2001, and it rapidly became a symbol of the "climate wars." The fundamental issue with the graph has always been its implicit threat to people who reject government regulation and other measures to safeguard the environment and the planet. Mann, the main author of the original study that first published the Hockey Stick, tells the narrative of the science and politics behind the debate. He shows significant players in the oil and energy industries, as well as media front organizations, who carry out their orders in a slick or bare-knuckled manner. The actual tale of the 2009 "Climategate" controversy, in which climate scientists' emails were stolen, is told by Mann at the end of the book. This is required reading for anybody concerned about the health of our world and their personal well-being.
