"Gravediggers of Science"

THB Insider #30

RIP

Let me tell you about when I crossed paths Paul Ehrlich,¹ the prophet of doom who passed away last week, at the ripe old age of 93.

In 2010 in Nature, journalist and science policy maven Daniel Greenberg (who died in 2020) wrote a highly favorable review of The Climate Fix:

Pielke merits admiration for his staunch defence of scientific accuracy and integrity. . . Pielke is not an apostle of inaction but a pragmatist who repeatedly and deservedly portrays his diagnoses and remedies as common sense. He largely fails to recognize, however, that common sense is frequently unwelcome in climate politics. . . The Climate Fix illustrates the dilemma confronting scientists who seek to influence politics. Telling it like it is does not thrive on Capitol Hill. But shaping the message to suit the politics often involves a betrayal of scientific truth and a distortion of public and political understanding.

Greenberg’s positive review set the climate discourse police into action. Soon after, Michael Mann and Stefan Rahmstorf, climate scientists, joined with Ehrlich in an effort to torch Greenberg’s reputation, perhaps as a demonstration to others of what happens when one moves off narrative.

Ehrlich and colleagues wrote a letter to Nature in which they asserted that Greenberg was “besmirching the integrity of the climate-research community.” Rather than take issue with the substance of the review or my book, they went the character-assassination route.

They suggested that Greenberg was somehow connected with the now-defunct Marshall Institute, implying that he was tainted by an affiliation with conservatives skeptical of climate change. Back in 2010 the mere suggestion that one had talked with conservatives or those skeptical of climate change was enough to set back an academic or journalistic career.

Ironically enough, the actions by Mann, Ehrlich, and Rahmstorf were exactly the sort of problematic behaviors of some highly partisan climate scientists that I had chronicled in my book.

Greenberg shared with me his response to them:²

Greenberg sent me the following note when he shared his response.

Note the political jujitsu practiced here — Mann, Ehrlich, and Rahmstorf shifted the conversation away from the substance of my book and onto the character of Daniel Greenberg, which he felt forced a response. Clever, but also contemptible.

There has been much commentary on the occasion of Ehrlich’s death —see, for example, Matt Ridley and Alex Trembath. Below, paid THB subscribers can find my 2013 review of Paul Sabin’s excellent book — The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and the Gamble over Earth’s Future.

History will look back on these two men very differently.

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