The hearing of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology became an avenue for its Committee Chairman Lamar Smith to continue his attack on climate science. He said that researchers are not following the scientific method. He even said that scientists tend to forget the basic tenets of science.
The hearing called "Climate Science: Assumptions, Policy Implications, and the Scientific Methods" was filled with tension as Penn State atmospheric scientists Michael Mann, along with the rest of the scientists on the panel, engaged in a heated argument with Republican climate science non-believers, Bloomberg reported. The intensity of the exchange reached its peak when Mann used the "Science" magazine article to question Lamar Smith's appearance at the Heartland Institute conference. He told the committee how the outlet is funded by the Koch brothers denying climate change, but still its chairman attended that nonprofit conference.
Meanwhile Smith specifically took shots on climate projections like Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), saying that their predictions aren't credible, ARS Technica reported. He said that these alarmist predictions are just wild guesses. He said that these scientists make climate predictions to promote their personal agenda.
Mann derived a quote from the article saying Smith is just using the committee to advance his political agenda instead of using it to examine the real issues the US research community is currently facing. Mann said that is very disturbing. But Smith replied saying Mann shouldn't mis-characterize the committee, and that the magazine wasn't very objective.
However, "Science" magazine's spokeswoman denied ever using the term "climate denier" in their story. Heartland Institute director of communications Kim Lakely believes Mann is just embarrassing himself. Saying the committee is Koch-funded is also wrong, since, according to Lakely, the organization never received any amount of money from the Koch brothers. However, at some points panelists somehow agreed on the fact that the world is getting hotter, human being is the biggest contributor to this phenomenon.
