In its 2001 report on global climate, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change of the United Nations prominently featured the "Hockey
Stick," a chart showing global temperature data over the past 1,000
years. The Hockey Stick demonstrated that temperature had risen with the
increase in industrialization and use of fossil fuels. The inescapable
conclusion was that worldwide human activity since the industrial age
had raised CO2 levels, trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and
warming the planet.
The Hockey Stick became a central icon in the "climate wars," and
well-funded science deniers immediately attacked the chart and the
scientists responsible for it. Yet the controversy has had little to do
with the depicted temperature rise and much more with the perceived
threat the graph posed to those who oppose governmental regulation and
other restraints to protect our environment and planet. Michael E. Mann,
lead author of the original paper in which the Hockey Stick first
appeared, shares the real story of the science and politics behind this
controversy. He introduces key figures in the oil and energy industries,
and the media front groups who do their bidding in sometimes slick,
bare-knuckled ways to cast doubt on the science.
Mann concludes with an account of the "Climategate" scandal, the 2009
hacking of climate scientists' emails. Throughout, Mann reveals the role
of science deniers, abetted by an uninformed media, in once again
diverting attention away from one of the central scientific and policy
issues of our time.
The accompanying reference guide is included as a PDF on this disc.
