A lawyer looks at Mann v. Steyn

...Interpolating for Mann v. Steyn an accurate jury instruction might go like this:

1700. Defamation per se—Essential Factual Elements (Public Officer/Figure and Limited Public Figure)

Michael Mann claims that Mark Steyn harmed him by making the following statement: “Michael Mann’s hockey stick is fraudulent”

To establish this claim, Michael Mann must prove that all of the following are more likely true than not true:

Liability -

That Mark Steyn made the statement to a person other than Michael Mann; 

That this person reasonably understood that the Statement was about Michael Mann;

That this person  reasonably understood the statement to mean that Michael Mann had used  falsified or improperly selected data and computer programs in creating his hockey stick graph;

In addition, Michael Mann  must prove by clear and convincing evidence that Mark Steyn knew the statement was false or had serious doubts about the truth of the statement.

So Michael Mann has a heavy burden to shoulder in order to win. He (not Mark Steyn) has the burden of proving that the statements are false AND he has to prove that Mark Steyn , at the time Steyn made the statements, believed them to be false or entertained serious doubts about the truth of the statement...

h/t Mark Steyn 

Litigious Climate Change Cultist Michael "Hockey Stick" Mann Libels Melbourne Herald Sun Columnist Andrew Bolt

Andrew Bolt in The Herald Sun:

Normally I do not sue, but this seems to me a special case.

Mann, the climate alarmist who gave the world his dodgy ”hockey stick”, is now suing sceptic Mark Steyn for mocking him and his lawyers have produced deceptive legal documents in his defence.

Mann has published an outright lie that defames me, and should face the same punishment he wishes to mete out on Steyn for mere mockery.

I do not lie and Murdoch does not pay me to do so. Nor has Mann singled out a single “lie” I’m alleged to have committed.

In fact, Mann is so reckless with the facts that his tweet links to an obvious parody Twitter account run by one of my critics, clearly believing that it’s actually mine.

More HERE

Related: Mann's puerile response to a recent editorial about climate change theory by Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer is to advocate swigging alcohol every time he encounters an idea in it he finds offensive. It's an interesting approach and indeed suggests prolific drinking may account for Mann's "science" and public behavior.

"Mike's trick":



h/t Dr. Roy

UPDATE: It has been pointed out to me that the original headline for this post incorrectly identified the Herald Sun as a Sydney newspaper, rather than the Melbourne Herald Sun, which is the actual location of the paper for which Andrew Bolt writes..

Mark Steyn ironically notes it's not worth suing over and while I agree, nonetheless I would like to offer my apologies. I have spent some time down under with Sydneyites and Melbournians and can attest that, at least back then, the former generally considered the latter to be uptight and humorless. (Although both were in agreement that New Zealanders are thoroughly uptight wankers.) So to anyone from Sydney, I do regret any offense that may have been caused by the confusion.

Lawrence Solomon: For global warming believers, 2013 was the year from Hell

Almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the cause of global warming

2013 has been a gloomy year for global warming enthusiasts. The sea ice in the Antarctic set a record, according to NASA, extending over a greater area than at any time since 1979 when satellite measurements first began. In the Arctic the news is also glum. Five years ago, Al Gore predicted that by 2013 “the entire North polar ice cap will be gone.” Didn’t happen. Instead, a deflated Gore saw the Arctic ice cap increase by 50% over 2012. This year’s Arctic ice likewise exceeded that of 2008, the year of his prediction. And that of 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Weather between the poles has also conspired to make the global warming believers look bad. In December, U.S. weather stations reported over 2000 record cold and snow days. Almost 60% of the U.S. was covered in snow, twice as much as last year. The heavens even opened up in the Holy Land, where an awestruck citizenry saw 16 inches of snow fall in Jerusalem, almost three feet in its environs. Snow blanketed Cairo for the first time in more than 100 years.

2013 marks the 17^th year of no warming on the planet. ..

Messing up Global Warming predictions, Antarctic Ice Cover reaches new high

WINTER sea ice cover in the Antarctic has grown to its largest extent since satellite records began in the late 1970s, defying most climate models and muddying the waters of the global warming debate.

The latest data from NASA's satellites shows the winter sea ice cover around the frozen continent reached a record 19.47 million sq km last month. That beats last winter's 19.44 million sq km -- itself a record.

According to NASA, it is 3.6 per cent higher than the average maximum between 1981 and 2010, with the sea ice cover in Antarctica growing at 1.5 per cent a decade.

The data runs contrary to the projections of many climate-change models. It also contrasts with observations of this year's Arctic summer minimum sea ice extent, which America's National Snow and Ice Data Centre says was about 30 per cent below levels seen in the early 1980s.

More at THE AUSTRALIAN

David Suzuki has an important new ally in the battle against man-made climate change!

Charlie don't surf and he doesn't leave a bigger carbon footprint than the California penal system will let him:

Jonathan Kay: Who would have thunk it? Angry Ezra is making media mincemeat of Saint Suzuki

Actually, Jon, a lot of us saw this coming..

..Ezra’s brilliant trick with Suzuki has been to turn the Cult of Suzuki on its head. Cults, after all, are creepy, because their social dynamic typically consists of an all-knowing father figure exercising moral suasion over legions of younger followers. Witness the episode at John Abbott College in Montreal, in which Suzuki’s team suggested that their boss be surrounded on campus by an all-female bodyguard corps.

Cults also usually reek of hypocrisy — because cult leaders, being human, never have the discipline to live by their own precepts.

“There are two David Suzukis,” Ezra writes in his most recent column for the Sun chain. “Most of us know one of the Suzukis. Let’s call him Saint Suzuki. That’s the Suzuki whose TV show on the CBC constantly lectures us about our lifestyle. He says we need to consume less, buy less and use less fossil fuels. But then there’s another Suzuki. Let’s call him Secret Suzuki, because he’s far less well-known...

Read all of Jonathan Kay's column at NATIONAL POST 

Why is it that only Sun News is pointing out David Suzuki's important conflicts of interest?

It took Ezra Levant's aggressive journalistic approach to get a Superior Court Judge to remove herself from a mock trail, in which she would be dealing with issues that might have come before her in court.

"The Trial of David Suzuki" is a theatrical exercise in anti-fossil-fuel activism.

But David Suzuki's hypocrisy, proliferation of falsehood and ignorance of fact about matters on which he pontificates has only been challenged in the media by Sun News.

The role of a journalist is not just to report, but to ask tough questions.

When the answer to those questions is to turn tail and run, as David Suzuki did earlier this week, that is more revealing than a full-page spread.

Australian newspaper debunks jet-setting "Global Warming" doomsday apostle, David Suzuki

How credible is he? Here’s just some fact-checking: 

David Suzuki, The Age, yesterday: 

...Half the coral on the Great Barrier Reef has disappeared in the past 27 years and its size could halve again in the next decade with degradation of the environment and the increasing frequency of cyclones.

Frequency of cyclones? Australian Bureau of Meteorology:

TRENDs in tropical cyclone activity in the Australian region ... show that the total number of cyclones has decreased in recent decades ... Two (recent studies) suggest that there will be no significant change in tropical cyclone numbers ... The third study, based on the CSIRO simulations, shows a significant decrease in tropical cyclone numbers for the Australian region ..

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority: 

CORAL reefs can cope with natural disturbances like floods and cyclones ...

And what exactly is damaging the reef? Brian Handwerk in National Geographic, June 8: 

TERRY Hughes, who heads the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies headquartered at James Cook University ... (said) ... “Coastal reefs have been obliterated by run-off of sediment, dredging, and pollution.”

More HERE

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

New studies on Global Warming could make David Suzuki's head explode

Challenges to the unproven notion that human-driven, carbon-dioxide emissions are causing the world to go to hell in a handbasket appear to be on the increase. 

According to surprising new research from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are responsible for global warming since the 1970s, not carbon dioxide. 

And researchers at Oxford University say the climate is less sensitive to carbon emissions than had been believed. 

Daily Telegraph reporter Tom Chivers says the new U.K. findings may bolster the argument of those who argue there are better responses than making "grandiose pledges to cut emissions." 

Chivers quotes Prof. Bjorn Lomborg, economist and high-profile author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, as saying rich countries are in a better position to deal with climate-change problems than poor ones are. So it's crucial to foster economic growth.

Plus: More on the Oxford studies at The Economist 

and 

Global Warming Alarmists Caught Doctoring '97-Percent Consensus' Claims

And in other Sunday news...

JR worked for Romanian communists?!?

The UN is making a power grab for Internet control

Pine Beetles said to affect Canada's climate

Is Al Gore going to start selling bug spray?