Heating up

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is known for giving global warming policies a cool reception. However, he is now feeling the heat from climate change theorists for investigating Michael Mann, a former University of Virginia professor and prominent climatologist.

The Virginia Supreme Court agreed this month to hear a case involving Cuccinelli's attempts to obtain documents related to Mann's climate research. Cuccinelli is questioning whether Mann defrauded state taxpayers by using manipulated data to obtain government grants.

The university has fought Cuccinelli's demand for the records, saying it infringes on academic freedom. Cuccinelli is appealing a judge's ruling last August that said he wasn't specific enough about how Mann, who now works at Penn State, might have broken the law. The judge also said Cuccinelli lacks authority to investigate federal grants. Spokesmen for Cuccinelli and the university both said they are happy the case will be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

The issue has gained national attention as critics have labeled Cuccinelli's efforts a brazen attack on global warming researchers. Mann, a physicist, is one of the most influential voices in the climate change discussion.

Mann's most notable research project, published in 1998, attempted to chart the Northern Hemisphere's temperature variation for the last 1,000 years. Dubbed "the hockey stick" graph for its shape, the chart was prominently cited in the 2006 bestseller, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, by former Vice-President Al Gore. The chart became an important piece of evidence for the theory of global warming.

Cuccinelli is not the first to request more details on Mann's research. Following a 2005 article in The Wall Street Journal arguing that Mann's methodology was deeply flawed, U.S. Rep. Joe Barton petitioned the professor for detailed information on his data-finding and research grants.

Mann's "hockey stick" was then subjected, among other investigations, to a peer review in 2006 led by Edward Wegman, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics. The Wegman Report concluded that criticisms of Mann's methodology were "valid and compelling." It also noted the "isolation" of the paleoclimate scientific community, who, although heavily dependent on statistical methods, seem to have little cooperation with statistical experts in their research.

Others protesting Cuccinelli's investigation include Virginia Senate Democrats, who passed legislation to curb the Republican attorney general's power to conduct civil investigations. The measure passed 24-16, but its survival before a Republican-ruled House of Delegates is unlikely.

Mann, however, maintains that the issue is one of academic freedom. In a March 11 email to The Associated Press, Mann said he expects the Virginia Supreme Court "will recognize the attorney general's scurrilous attacks against me, academia and the scientific community as the clear abuse of power that it is."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

"Like" us on Facebook today!