As reported by PowerLine, Michael Mann, an American climatologist from Penn State University who authored the famous “hockey stick” chart used by Al Gore to prove global warming, just lost a court case in British Columbia after he refused requests by the court to produce the data underlying his climate change conclusions. The court “dismissed Mann’s lawsuit with prejudice, and assessed costs against him,” which is a way of saying he lost big time.
The case began when Dr. Tim Ball, a Canadian climatologist and climate change skeptic, mocked Mann after hacked emails revealed that the data behind the hockey stick chart may have been manipulated, saying Mann “should be in the State Pen, not Penn State.” Mann sued Ball for libel. It all fell apart when Ball used the “truth defense,” arguing that if he had access to the data he could show he was right. Mann refused to provide it, thus not only losing his case but providing further evidence that the hockey stick chart may not be, ahem…scientifically defensible.
When the hacked emails appeared earlier, this Hide the Decline song came out. It now seems spot on.