For Americans wondering what that popping sound emanating from the Great White North might be, it’s probably the sound of champagne bottles in the Steyn household. Legendary writer Mark Steyn, who found himself embroiled in a decade-plus legal battle with litigious climate alarmist Michael Mann, is enjoying yet another long-delayed last laugh.
First, the original million dollars awarded to Mann, after Steyn publicly labelled him “a disgrace to the profession”, was reduced to just $5000. Then Mann was slapped with a legal bill of half a million dollars.
Now, in a dish truly served up with a heapin’ helpin’ of schadenfreude, Mann has been sacked from his latest ‘climate’ sinecure – all because of his own big mouth. After less than a year as the University of Pennsylvania’s first vice provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action, Mann is out of a cushy job.
All because he couldn’t keep his stupid opinions to himself on social media.
According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, Mann stepped down after his partisan behavior clashed with Penn’s new policy of “institutional neutrality.” His resignation came on the heels of controversy surrounding his social media posts – including a since-deleted comment about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. That was enough to draw the attention of Sen Dave McCormick (R-Pa), who publicly pressed the university to act.
Recently, Mann reposted comments calling Charlie Kirk the “head of Trump’s Hitler Youth.”
Mann’s biggest problem is that he keeps forgetting how to be a genuine scientist. He prefers to be an activist. As shown by the fact that he cannot even apparently conceive that ‘advocacy’ is inimical to science.
“In a Sept 29 announcement made on his personal website, Mann stated that his scientific advocacy work conflicts with Penn’s ‘established institutional neutrality policy.’ … Particularly at this moment in time, I don’t feel that I can forsake the public scholarship and advocacy that I am doing and have thus decided to step down from the VPC role.” – Michael Mann, quoted in the Daily Pennsylvanian.
In other words, Mann wanted the perks of authority without the restraint of responsibility. When the university reminded him that administrators are supposed to represent everyone, not just his chosen cause, Mann packed up and left.
Unfortunately, while Mann has left the provost position, he’ll still continue to blight the halls at UPenn as a professor.
The irony of Mann’s self-inflicted career damage is particularly delicious, given the nasty vindictiveness that has characterised his career.
He branded anyone skeptical of his [“hockey stick”] graph as a “denier.”
He launched lawsuits against writers and scientists who dared to question him.
He relentlessly blurred the line between advocacy and science, portraying every disagreement as an attack on Truth itself.
Now, the man who spent decades accusing others of undermining science has been undone by his own inability to separate activism from scholarship.
As for his ‘scholarship’…
The Hockey Stick Graph (1998): Mann’s claim to fame, a reconstruction of past climate temperatures that conveniently erased the Medieval Warm Period. Critics shredded the statistical methods, but Mann doubled down and cast all skepticism as denial.
The “Denier” Label: Mann turned debate into heresy, branding dissenters as enemies of science itself. Instead of addressing criticism with transparency, he weaponized rhetoric.
The Media Darling: Mann cultivated his role as the go-to scientist for alarmist headlines. His op-eds and TV spots were less about data and more about messaging.
The pattern is unmistakable: Mann has never been able to separate science from politics.
Ergo, he’s not a proper scientist: he’s an activist in a shabby, borrowed, labcoat.
Word to the wise: you can be a scientist or you can be an activist. You can’t be both.
Mann has clearly made his choice.
