Tag: climate
Jury Awards Climate Scientist $1 Million In Defamation Lawsuit
The jury in Superior Court of the District of Columbia awarded Mann $1 in compensatory damages from each writer; it also awarded punitive damages of $1,000 from Simberg and $1 million from Steyn. It announced its verdict after four weeks of trial and one day of deliberations. During the trial, Steyn represented himself, but said through his manager Melissa Howes that he would be appealing the $1 million award in punitive damages, saying it would have to face “due process scrutiny.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A Famous Climate Scientist Is In Court With Big Stakes For Attacks On Science
The attacks came from groups that reject climate science, some funded by the fossil fuel industry. In the midst of these types of attacks — including the hacking of Mann’s and other scientists’ emails by unknown hackers — Penn State, where Mann was then working, opened an investigation into his research. Penn State, as well as the National Science Foundation, found no evidence of scientific misconduct. But a policy analyst and an author wrote that they were not convinced. The trial in D.C. Superior Court involves posts from right-wing author Mark Steyn and policy analyst Rand Simberg. In an online post, Simberg compared Mann to former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, a convicted child sex abuser. Simberg wrote that Mann was the “Sandusky of climate science,” writing that Mann “molested and tortured data (PDF).” Steyn called Mann’s research fraudulent. Mann sued the two men for defamation. Mann also sued the publishers of the posts, National Review and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, but in 2021, the court ruled they couldn’t be held liable.
In court, Mann has argued that he lost funding and research opportunities. Steyn said in court that if Penn State’s president, Graham Spanier, covered up child sexual assault, why wouldn’t he cover up for Mann’s science. The science in question used ice cores and tree rings to estimate Earth’s past temperatures. “If Graham Spanier is prepared to cover up child rape, week in, week out, year in, year out, why would he be the least bit squeamish about covering up a bit of hanky panky with the tree rings and the ice cores?” Steyn asked the court. Mann and Steyn declined to speak to NPR during the ongoing trial. One of Simberg’s lawyers, Victoria Weatherford, said “inflammatory does not equal defamatory” and that her client is allowed to express his opinion, even if it were wrong. “No matter how offensive or distasteful or heated it is,” Weatherford tells NPR, “that speech is absolutely protected under the First Amendment when it’s said against a public figure, if the person saying it believed that what they said was true.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A Famous Climate Scientist Is In Court With Big Stakes For Attacks On Science
The attacks came from groups that reject climate science, some funded by the fossil fuel industry. In the midst of these types of attacks — including the hacking of Mann’s and other scientists’ emails by unknown hackers — Penn State, where Mann was then working, opened an investigation into his research. Penn State, as well as the National Science Foundation, found no evidence of scientific misconduct. But a policy analyst and an author wrote that they were not convinced. The trial in D.C. Superior Court involves posts from right-wing author Mark Steyn and policy analyst Rand Simberg. In an online post, Simberg compared Mann to former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, a convicted child sex abuser. Simberg wrote that Mann was the “Sandusky of climate science,” writing that Mann “molested and tortured data (PDF).” Steyn called Mann’s research fraudulent. Mann sued the two men for defamation. Mann also sued the publishers of the posts, National Review and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, but in 2021, the court ruled they couldn’t be held liable.
In court, Mann has argued that he lost funding and research opportunities. Steyn said in court that if Penn State’s president, Graham Spanier, covered up child sexual assault, why wouldn’t he cover up for Mann’s science. The science in question used ice cores and tree rings to estimate Earth’s past temperatures. “If Graham Spanier is prepared to cover up child rape, week in, week out, year in, year out, why would he be the least bit squeamish about covering up a bit of hanky panky with the tree rings and the ice cores?” Steyn asked the court. Mann and Steyn declined to speak to NPR during the ongoing trial. One of Simberg’s lawyers, Victoria Weatherford, said “inflammatory does not equal defamatory” and that her client is allowed to express his opinion, even if it were wrong. “No matter how offensive or distasteful or heated it is,” Weatherford tells NPR, “that speech is absolutely protected under the First Amendment when it’s said against a public figure, if the person saying it believed that what they said was true.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Climate activists cripple London by using legal loophole to halt traffic
CLIMATE activists cripple central London — using a legal loophole to halt traffic.
Eco-zealots from Just Stop Oil outraged motorists yesterday by slow-marching on seven different city routes.
A furious driver throws a bottle of water at the protesters and shouts abuse, until the police come to speak to him[/caption]
The Public Order Act of 2023 bars activists from obstructing transport works and key services[/caption]
They began their strolls from 7am to cause maximum commute chaos.
Police were unable to act, as under the law it is not an obstruction if you are moving — even at a snail’s pace.
Police in Regent Street dispersed one group after they refused a request to move on to the pavement.
But cops elsewhere failed to make arrests, as the standstill left vexed drivers beeping horns and swearing.
The Public Order Act of 2023 bars activists from obstructing transport works and key services, like rail.
However, a legal source last night told The Sun: “Protesters have found a way round the law with slow marches.”
Terraform Industries wants to solve climate change by making more hydrocarbons
Casey Handmer is not intimidated by very large quantities. Billions of acres. Thousands of gigawatts of solar power. A billion metric tons of carbon. His startup, Terraform Industries, aims to operate at these ambitious scales. The company wants to turn hydrogen and atmospheric carbon into synthetic natural gas at scale. It’s more than a little […]
Terraform Industries wants to solve climate change by making more hydrocarbons by Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on TechCrunch
Road block! Paris Hilton grand Met Gala entrance is blocked by angry climate change protestors
BP shareholders easily defeat climate activist resolution at AGM
Big-time VCs link arms for climate coalition
About two-dozen venture capital firms say they are teaming up to “build a robust movement” in the VC business to combat the climate crisis. The group calls itself the Venture Climate Alliance, or VCA. The coalition counts well-known tech investors, including Tiger Global and Union Square Ventures as members, and said in a joint statement […]
Big-time VCs link arms for climate coalition by Harri Weber originally published on TechCrunch
Another Ocean Climate Solution Attempted by California Researchers
The technology, dubbed SeaChange, developed by the University of California Los Angeles engineering faculty, is meant to seize on the ocean’s natural abilities, said Gaurav Sant, director of UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management. The process sends an electrical charge through seawater flowing through tanks on the barge. That then sets off a series of chemical reactions that trap the greenhouse gas into a solid mineral that includes calcium carbonate — the same thing seashells are made of. The seawater is then returned to the ocean and can pull more carbon dioxide out of the air. The calcium carbonate settles to the sea floor.
Plans are now underway to scale up the idea with another demonstration site starting this month in Singapore. Data collected there and at the Port of Los Angeles will help in the design of larger test plants. Those facilities are expected to be running by 2025 and be able to remove thousands of tons of CO2 per year. If they are successful, the plan is to build commercial facilities to remove millions of tons of carbon annually, Sant said…
Scientists estimate at least 10 billion metric tons of carbon will need to be removed from the air annually beginning in 2050, and the pace will need to continue over the next century… According to the UCLA team, at least 1,800 industrial-scale facilities would be needed to capture 10 billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year, but fewer could still make a dent.
The article notes alternate ideas from other researchers — including minerals on beaches that increase the ocean’s alkalinity so it can absorb more carbon dioxide.
But this SeaChange process also produces hydrogen. So the director of UCLA’s Carbon Management institute also founded a startup that generates revenue from that hydrogen (and from “carbon credits” sold to other companies) — hoping to lower the cost of removing atmospheric carbon to below $100 per metric ton.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.