Most, if not all, of y'all would certainly join me in a call to cheer for Nature and likewise join a resounding raspberry for Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia given half a chance. So I'm sure you all will aggree that since it's not nice to fool with Nature Attorney General Cuccinelli deserves her wrath and you, gentle reader, can read about it beyond the fold...
The publishers of Nature have written an editorial decrying the actions of Virginia State's Attorney Ken Cuccinelli with respect to the scientific research of Dr. Michael Mann who, while at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville proposed the famous 'hockey stick' graph representing the effects of global warming.
Climate science is under scrutiny once again, this time over a modest half-a-million dollars — the collective sum of five federal and state grants being investigated by Kenneth Cuccinelli, a firebrand conservative who was elected late last year as attorney general of Virginia. The grants had multiple recipients, but the official target of the probe is Michael Mann, an internationally respected climate scientist who was an investigator on all five grants while working at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville between 1999 and 2005.
Nature rightfully condemns the action which Cuccinelli instigated without any evidence of wrong doing.
Given the lack of any evidence of wrongdoing, it's hard to see Cuccinelli's subpoena — and similar threats of legal action against climate scientists in a February report by climate-change denier Senator James Inhofe (Republican, Oklahoma) — as anything more than an idealogically motivated inquisition that harasses and intimidates climate scientists.
Of course, Cuccinelli contends he is not "targeting scientific conclusions", yet it is difficult to see how this blatent attempt to intimidate scientists and researchers who dare to take their investigations wherever they might lead is anything but a political ploy. As Nature puts it, "Certainly Cuccinelli has lost no time in burnishing his credentials with far-right 'Tea Party' activists, many of whom hail him as a hero."
So, I say, "Three Cheers for Nature!"