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committee. Such realities did not, however, stop him from issuing burdensome and intrusive demands
of me particularly, and also of my coauthors. Barton's letters appeared intended to send shivers down
our spines, and certainly did succeed to an extent. Moreover, he sidelined us with vexatious demands,
the response to which both proved a major time sink and required us to solicit legal advice and
representation. Needless to say, I would have rather been spending my time meeting my teaching,
advising, and professional obligations and advancing various scientific research projects.
Responding to such intimidation tactics was most certainly not what I had bargained for when I chose
to go into science.
Barton demanded extensive materials dating back through my entire scientific career. Among
them were to “List all financial support you have received related to your research, including, but not
limited to, all private, state, and federal assistance, grants, contracts (including subgrants or
subcontracts), or other financial awards or honoraria.” He further demanded: (1) “the location of all
data archives relating to each published study for which you were an author or co-author,” (2) “such
supporting documentation as computer source code, validation information, and other ancillary
information,” (3) “when this information was available to researchers,” (4) “where and when you
first identified the location of this information,” (5) “what modifications, if any, you have made to this
information since publication of the respective study,” and (6) “narrative description of the steps …
to replicate your study results or assess the quality of the proxy data.” He insisted that I “Explain in
detail your work for and on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate … including the process
for review of studies and other information, including the dates of key meetings … the steps taken by
you, reviewers, and lead authors to ensure the data underlying the studies forming the basis for key
findings of the report were sound and accurate … the requests you received for revisions to your
written contribution … and … the identity of the people who wrote and reviewed … portions of the
report.” 11
There was a swift and dramatic response to Barton's letters, but probably not the one he was
expecting or hoping for. Prominent members of the scientific community, along with leading national
and international scientific organizations, denounced his actions in the strongest terms. The European
scientific community was the first to speak out. On July 7, the European Geophysical Union (EGU),
the largest professional geosciences society in Europe, issued a position statement: “We urge the
Committee of Energy and Commerce and its Chairman to withdraw the highly inappropriate letters of
June 23 and instead schedule a hearing of … experts … discussing the available scientific evidence
on … climate change.” The EGU statement stressed some basic facts that continued to be
conveniently ignored by our critics: “we would like to point out that the … IPCC … finding that the
increase in 20th century northern hemisphere temperatures is 'likely to have been the largest of any
century during the past 1,000 years' [is] based on multiple lines of evidence, not just … Mann et al.…
and … the results of … Mann et al.… have been confirmed by an independent team of scientists with
freely available computer code and data.” The same day, the journal Nature published an editorial,
“Climate of Distrust,” expressing concern that “by requesting information on research that does not fit
his world view, Barton seems determined to use his political influence to put pressure on the
scientific process.” 12 Nature 's words evoked the scientific community's deep-seated concerns over
precisely the sort of political tampering with science that history so clearly warns us against.
Over the next week, a number of leading U.S. scientists, science groups, and organizations,
including the president of the National Academy of Sciences and the executive publisher of the
 
 
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