The Origins of Denial - The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars - page 53

been so extensive and profound that a separate book has been written on the topic. 85 But this is to get
ahead of the story.
In chapter 1 we saw an early instance of an assault on climate scientists in the attack on Ben
Santer for his groundbreaking work in the mid1990s that helped establish a “discernible human
influence on climate.” He saw his integrity impugned as part of an industry-funded smear campaign,
and his job and even his life were at times threatened. 86 The attacks against Santer were a sign of
what was to come—for me. As Santer himself put it in an interview with the New Scientist a decade
later, “There are people who believe that if they bring down Mike Mann, they can bring down the
IPCC.” 87