Shock: Political activist Michael Mann defends political activist Kari Norgaard

Sociology professor draws Limbaugh’s ire | The conservative radio host and bloggers attack Kari Norgaard for her work on climate change

“Dr. Norgaard is just the latest in a long line of very respected, responsible scientists who are being attacked because their message, frankly, is a threat to some very powerful vested interests,” Mann said.

...Kerry Emanuel, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate program, was bombarded [peaking at four or five in one day!] with vile e-mails after he appeared in a video produced by some pro-science Republicans, Mann said.

Mann said the bloggers’ tactics are tried and true.

“It was the same tactic used by the tobacco industry to try to discredit scientists who were finding the linkage between the use of their product and adverse health effects,” he said.

Mann asserted that many of the bloggers [which ones, specifically?] are paid by fossil fuel industry groups to deliver a purposefully crafted message: “They use very carefully calibrated rhetoric,” he said. “They use buzzwords. They try to portray climate scientists as environmental extremists who are trying to take away your personal liberty.”

...The UO, however, did back up its faculty member.

“They’ve made it clear they recognize that this is not about my work, and my work is good,” Norgaard said. “They’ve provided me with assistance about how to handle my e-mail.”

Moonbattery » Portraits in Moonbattery: Kari Norgaard

Professor Kari Norgaard, who is currently appearing at the ‘Planet Under Pressure’ conference in London, has presented a paper in which she argues that “cultural resistance” to accepting the premise that humans are responsible for climate change “must be recognized and treated” as an aberrant sociological behavior.