Page 44 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

2 AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL E. MANN … 27

which is to say that when you’re talking about a particular topic, what’s the
relationship between the extreme heat we’ve seen in Sydney and this winter
and climate change, we can draw upon this peer-reviewed literature. It’s
there to provide support for the points that you might make, and more-
over, if you want to have credibility as a science communicator that comes
in part from having your peers respect you. Having them be familiar with
your peer-reviewed work. And that process of publishing peer-reviewed
literature and doing science is very important in grounding you. Keeping
one foot in the world of scientific research I think makes you a better
communicator, in part because it helps to ensure you’re familiar with the
cutting edge of where the science is. And if you’re not immersed in the
literature, you’re not going to be.

ATTACKS ON SCIENCE
BB: In 2009 your emails were hacked and used by climate change
denialists and mining/oil lobbies to discredit climate science. Several
years later, no wrongdoing was found on the part of the scientists.
MM: You have to recognise that the attacks happened in the lead up to the
Copenhagen summit in 2009. They were designed simply to hijack the
discussion at Copenhagen. The investigations—eight, nine, ten of them—
that found that there were no improprieties revealed in the stolen emails
played out over several years and in the meantime climate change deniers
were able to exploit the scandal for all its worth.
BB: And we lost almost decades.
MM: We lost almost a decade and we continue. It’s an attack that can be
used over and over again in part, because we have a media that in many
cases isn’t doing its job and just plays along with the whole false balance.
We’ll just put it out there—put both sides out there and that doesn’t serve
the public good.

DEALING WITH THE MEDIA
BB: That’s interesting. I tend to blame the commercial media for their
lack of understanding of environmental issues, their lack of expertise.
Lack of funding sometimes … so what do you think, in general, of the
media coverage?