...and it's about f*&!ing time.
(Very short diary here -- don't have much time to elaborate)
Canada's leading climate-scientist has just filed a libel/defamation lawsuit against the National Post, its editors, and several of its "reporters".
Michael Mann is also "lawyering up", and he's going on the offense.
(Props to desmogblog.com for helping to get the word out.)
The legal complaint (unfortunately scanned pdf, not searchable) can be downloaded here: http://www.desmogblog.com/...
News release here: http://www.marketwire.com/...
Excerpt:
In a statement released at the same time the suit was filed, Dr. Weaver said, "I asked The National Post to do the right thing – to retract a number of recent articles that attributed to me statements I never made, accused me of things I never did, and attacked me for views I never held. To my absolute astonishment, the newspaper refused."
Dr. Weaver's statement of claim not only asks for a Court injunction requiring The National Post to remove all of the false allegations from its Internet websites, but also seeks an unprecedented Court order requiring the newspaper to assist Dr. Weaver in removing the defamatory National Post articles from the many other Internet sites where they have been re-posted.
"If I sit back and do nothing to clear my name, these libels will stay on the Internet forever. They'll poison the factual record, misleading people who are looking for reliable scientific information about global warming," said Weaver.
Also, Michael Mann has finally had enough and he's now fighting back. From http://sciblogs.co.nz/...
Apparently climate scientist Michael Mann has threatened legal action* against Minnesotans for Global Warming (M4GW) over their video "Hide the Decline." This used the comment from the "climategate" emails to portray a dishonest and slanderous picture of Mann. The video has been heavily promoted by climate change deniers and conservative groups, news outlets and blogs internationally. Several conservative NZ bloggers promoted the video.
OK so I'm not a lawyer, but I'm going to offer my advice to all the climate-scientists out there anyway: After you win judgments against those deniers, grab them by their ankles and shake the pennies loose!