Summarised by Centrist
After more than eight years of litigation, climate scientist Michael E. Mann has been ordered by a Washington, DC, court to pay National Review just over USD $530,800 (NZD $946,00) in legal fees and costs.
Mann is a climatologist best known for the “hockey stick graph,” which suggests a sharp rise in global temperatures during the 20th century.
Made famous by its inclusion in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, the graph became a key symbol of human-induced climate change. National Review criticised Mann’s work, leading Mann to file a defamation lawsuit against National Review and others.
The editors of National Review described the lawsuit as an attempt by Mann to “ruin” their publication through what they argue was a meritless attack on free speech.
Mann’s legal campaign, which spanned from 2012 to 2019, aimed to claim damages for defamation and emotional distress stemming from critiques of his scientific arguments.
The editors called his conduct “shocking,” accusing him of weaponising the legal system against dissenting voices rather than engaging in open debate. The lawsuit forced National Review to spend significant resources defending itself, and while the recent award is a victory, it covers only a portion of the publication’s legal expenses.
Despite the court’s decision, the editors criticised the broader judicial process, stating that “justice was repeatedly delayed” and that the ruling did not amount to a full vindication of free speech.
They also condemned the orders requiring National Review’s co-defendants, columnist Mark Steyn and aerospace engineer Rand Simberg, to pay damages, arguing it set a troubling precedent. Calling it a “process as punishment,” they criticised the years-long litigation as a weapon against dissent, warning it undermines free speech by making debate over public issues like climate science too costly to risk.
Read more over at The National Review
Image: Klaus Bittermann
