Suing for Global Warming

At least one of the scientists sounding the global warming alarm may have found his way out of meticulous peer review: litigation. “A Stanford University professor’s defamation lawsuit in defense of his green energy research has raised the temperature on the climate change debate, fueling fears that such a precedent could put a chill on scientific inquiry,” Valerie Richardson reported in The Washington Times on December 6, 2017. “In 2015, Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, did a study that said U.S. power demands could be met with 100 percent non-nuclear renewable energy by 2050.”

“The high-profile study was widely hailed by environmentalists, spurring calls for ‘100 in ‘50’ and providing support for legislation introduced by Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, Oregon Democrat, to move the U.S. energy grid to all renewables by 2050. Now, Mr. Jacobson has sued for $10 million after a group of researchers published a paper in June challenging his study.”

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