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Fall 2005 Departments
Exchange
Prerequisite
Extended Family
Foundation News
Alumni Connections
Class Notes
Zip 01003
Books Received
Alumni Photos
Features
Raising His Game
Never Mind the Weather?
If You Can Make it There
Peg Riley Wants a New Drug
A Capitol Guy
What They've Learned
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Feature
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A Chilling Precedent?
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ON JUNE 23, 2005, TEXAS Congressman Joe Barton, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent letters to Professor Raymond Bradley and his colleagues, who authored the papers underlying the so-called “hockey stick” diagram. He demanded voluminous information regarding both their raw data and about funding they have received over the course of their entire careers. Was this an example of diligent Congressional oversight? Or a blatant attempt to bully and intimidate scientists who had reached politically uncomfortable conclusions?
Editorial boards around the country, including the New York Times (which called it “harassing”) and the Washington Post (which termed Barton’s inquiry “a bizarre episode”), saw only chilling precedents. Even fellow Republican Sherwood Boehlert of New York took Barton to task, calling his letters an effort “to substitute Congressional political review for scientific peer review.” Boehlert, who chairs the House Committee on Science, added, “the only conceivable explanation for the investigation is to attempt to intimidate a prominent scientist and to have Congress put its thumbs on the scales of a scientific debate.”
To read the letters, including Professor Bradley’s response, visit www.realclimate.org. |
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Never Mind the Weather?
Never Mind the Weather?: more images
A Chilling Precedent?
Mysteries in the Muck
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