scripps-howard

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">320</font></div><div><a href="https://www.drillednews.com/post/fake-science-is-a-real-danger"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.drillednews.com/post/fake-science-is-a-real-danger</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p class="XzvDs 208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Back in the mid-aughts, I was an editor at Environmental Science & Technology</b>. It's the top peer-reviewed journal for researchers who study complex environmental problems and their impacts, including air, water, and toxic chemical pollution. I worked in the news section, making these studies understandable to average readers, as well as scientists and physicians who were unfamiliar with environmental research. </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But over time, I noticed that much of the “new research” we published wasn’t terribly unique. If ES&T put out a study finding that a particular chemical seemed to be toxic to children, or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/science/a-dogs-best-friend-in-stormy-weather.html" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">The New York Times covered</u></a> one of our “blockbuster” air pollution studies, I could search for 10 minutes and find multiple papers with similar findings. What was the point of spending all this time and money to study the environment and public health if nothing was being done to address the problems?</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During this period, I started hearing complaints from some environmental scientists, that the industries whose products and technologies they studied were funding research to undermine findings that those products harmed public health. At first I thought this couldn’t be true. I had studied biology in college and believed that science was an objective process to reveal the world’s mysteries. </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then I met Fred Vom Saal.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Around 2004, I’d been chosen to attend an exclusive science conference on toxic chemicals, along with Vom Saal, a University of Missouri professor of reproductive biology. Vom Saal studied a <b>chemical in plastics called bisphenol-A, or BPA.</b> In humans and other animals BPA mimics estrogen, meaning it can disrupt our body’s hormonal system. According to Vom Saal, industry-funded scientists were attacking his research by repeating his studies, but with slight changes in the protocols so that the problems he’d discovered with BPA wouldn’t turn up. With these studies in hand, companies then claimed that Vom Saal’s research was shoddy.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I listened to Vom Saal rant for about 30 minutes one summer afternoon during a break in the conference, then exited politely. Science, like every profession, attracts its share of crazies. It was easier for me to accept that Vom Saal was a tad delusional than to believe that industry scientists manipulated research.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But then I started hearing about Tyrone Haye</b>s, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Hayes was studying atrazine, a <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2010/03/01/frogs/" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">widely-applied herbicide</u></a> that controls weeds and increases crop yields in corn and sorghum. Scientists were discovering that this chemical was the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface waters, and finding it in some drinking water wells, too. Hayes’ research showed that atrazine interfered with testosterone, chemically castrating some animals and turning males into females.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The next question should have been: What was atrazine doing to humans?</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But like Vom Saal, Hayes contended that corporate scientists were publishing studies that nearly mirrored his own, with slight changes in protocol to get results that found no problems with atrazine. According to Hayes, these studies <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/54/12/1138/330110" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">were part of an orchestrated campaign</u></a> to make him appear incompetent. But Hayes struck me as an odd fellow and a bit eccentric. As with Vom Saal, I had my doubts about him.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Then along came climate scientist Michael Mann.</b></font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the summer of 2005, Congressman Joe Barton, R-Texas, began investigating Mann, along with several other climate scientists, for allegedly making “methodological flaws and data errors.” <a href="http://www.realclimate.org/docs/thacker/wsj.pdf" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">Barton demanded information</u></a> on their financial backing from government agencies and access to their data and computer codes. He questioned their relationships to organizations studying climate change. It seemed like a juicy story that was right in line with ES&T's science news coverage, so I contacted sources to learn more and begin writing stories.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because ES&T didn’t cover climate change, I knew little to nothing about climate science. What I did know came from reading the mainstream news, which put across climate science as controversial, and climate researchers' many troubling claims about global warming as overblown. But I also knew that these outlets were probably getting the story wrong, because of an interaction I’d had the year before with some fellow reporters at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists. </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One day at the conference, while six or seven of us were standing in a circle during a break, the conversation shifted to climate change. Because I didn’t know much about the subject, I kept asking the others questions, trying to understand whether the research was any good. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A woman who covered the environment for a newspaper out west began laughing, saying that there were about a dozen scientists who said that climate science was nonsense. She kept contact information around for all 12 of them, she told us, because<b> her editors required her to put one of these doubters in every story to provide journalistic “balance." </b></span></font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Several reporters in the circle giggled. This was my first hint that what I was reading in the media on climate science might be overemphasizing contrarian opinions. </b>Because what everyone in that circle already knew, and I was learning, was that by 2004 thousands of climate experts around the world had published research showing global warming was real, and mostly caused by carbon dioxide pollution from burning oil, coal, and gas.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My article about Barton’s investigation of Michael Mann quoted several experts who told me the affair was a “witch hunt.” But a question kept nagging at me: Why had Barton started this investigation in the first place? It didn’t make any sense. So I began looking at the entire sequence of events that led up to it.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In his letter demanding information and records, <a href="http://www.realclimate.org/docs/thacker/wsj.pdf" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">Barton had referenced a front-page article</u></a> in The Wall Street Journal that discussed research published by Stephen McIntyre</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, a retired mining consultant. In several of these papers, </span><a href="http://www.realclimate.org/docs/thacker/wsj.pdf" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">McIntyre had poked holes in Mann’s</u></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> research. At this point in time, some journalists and activists were beginning to expose many of the scientists questioning climate science as industry lackeys. But McIntyre was retired, creating the appearance of independence from any extraction industry and greater credibility.</span></font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On a lark, I called up McIntyre’s former employer. Surprise! I caught him still working for industry.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Then I looked into the<b> journal Energy & Environment</b>, where McIntyre had published some studies. It turned out to be <a href="http://www.realclimate.org/docs/thacker/skeptics.pdf" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">a sad publication</u></a> without any substantive peer review process, and operated by an editor without any science credentials — but who assured me that while she didn’t have any training in science, <a href="http://www.realclimate.org/docs/thacker/skeptics.pdf" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">her husband had</u></a> a doctorate in physics.</span></font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short, Barton had launched an investigation based on a Wall Street Journal article with some pretty flimsy reporting. Commenting on this article, former Journal editor <a href="http://www.realclimate.org/docs/thacker/wsj.pdf" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">Frank Allen told me</u></a>, “It was a strange story ’cause it had this bizarre undertone of being investigative but it didn’t investigate. And this piece — what I thought was bothersome about it — it purported to be authoritative, and it’s just full of holes.”</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fred Vom Saal, Tyrone Hayes, and Michael Mann: Three different academics, working in different fields, who didn’t know each other, but who each had a story about industry campaigns to undermine their research. Was I a magnet for paranoid fringe voices in science, or were they telling the truth?</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></b></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Then I began noticing a link between climate change and smoking.</b> Whenever a group or public expert said that climate change isn’t real, it turned out that about 10 years prior, in the mid-’90s, they were likely to have said that smoking isn’t harmful. I found this out by going through a new archive that the University of California, San Francisco had put online, called <a href="https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/tobacco/" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">the Tobacco Archives</u></a>.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Digging through these documents, I found that many prominent scientists had worked for the tobacco industry, and that cigarette companies had funded science organizations and nonprofits to cast doubt on the science that showed nicotine was addictive, and smoking a health hazard. It was all very confusing. So I began contacting other reporters and scientists, asking if they knew about this and what they thought it meant.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>One winter afternoon, I got a call from a reporter named Mark Hertsgaard,</b> asking what I knew about the links between tobacco defenders and climate denial. By this time, I had spent dozens of weekend and late night hours going through the Tobacco Archive. So I pointed <a href="https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/tobacco/results/#q=%22frederick%20seitz%22&h=%7B%22hideDuplicates%22%3Atrue%2C%22hideFolders%22%3Atrue%7D&subsite=tobacco&cache=true&count=694" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">him to documents showing</u></a> that a scientist named Frederick Seitz had worked with R.J. Reynolds to downplay the dangers of tobacco. Seitz wasn’t some nobody: He had been president of Rockefeller University and <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/history/highlights/frederick-seitz.html" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">president of the National Academies of Sciences</u></a>. When Mark and I spoke, Seitz was still revered as one of the most prominent scientists in America. </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hertsgaard wrote about Seitz’s work for tobacco and other companies for a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/05/warming200605?verso=true" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">2006 Vanity Fair cover story</u></a>, confirming that some industries were corrupting the field of science.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>I also began to see how corporations influenced the media.</b> While reading the Tobacco Archive one night, I discovered that tobacco companies were paying a Fox News science columnist named Steven J. Milloy, who regularly attacked scientists and journalists reporting on chemical and tobacco harms. In my article about Milloy <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/104858/smoked-out" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">for The New Republic</u></a>, I noted that Eamon Javers of BusinessWeek had caught<b> Scripps Howard columnist Michael Fumento </b>receiving about $60,000 in 1999 from Monsanto, a multi-billion-dollar player in the agricultural biotech sector that Fumento covered. The funding, which Fumento had not disclosed to Scripps Howard, had been routed through a conservative think tank called the Hudson Institute. </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The growing evidence eventually forced me to change my precious thinking that science is always an objective search for the truth. In fact, corporate money is often skewing that journey, and if we look hard enough, we can find disinformation campaigns designed to protect all sorts of harmful products. </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the years since I figured this out, the public television series <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nature/interviews/vomsaal.html" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">Frontline has documented</u></a> the disinformation operation that companies ran against Fred Vom Saal. The New Yorker magazine has <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">profiled Tyrone Hayes and</u></a> the corporate campaign to smear him. Michael Mann has detailed the fossil energy industry’s harassment of himself and other climate scientists in a best-selling book, <a href="https://michaelmann.net/books/hockey-stick" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars</u></a>,</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Industries create these campaigns because they are effective at confusing the public and the press about science, which helps to slow or stop policy changes that would require stronger anti-pollution laws, or taking products off the market. Today disinformation has become its own industry, one that distorts not only climate science, but most areas of research where studies might influence how the government regulates corporations.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/104858/smoked-out" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">Scripps Howard later fired</u></span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"> Fumento, who </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/my_break_with_the_extreme_right/" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">publicly denounced extreme right disinformation campaigns</u></span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"> in 2012. He recently wrote </span><a href="https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2019/03/12/ignore_the_ominous_headlines_about_glyphosate_in_food_103659.html" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">a supportive opinion piece for Monsanto's glyphosate</u></span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"> pesticide. Milloy remains a mouthpiece for industry, and was a member of Donald Trump's </span><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060050546/" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="_2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency</u></span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">.</span></font></p></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div>