Posted on 13 June 2020 by John Hartz

Editor's Choice

Michael Mann Fought Climate Denial. Now He’s Fighting Climate Doom.

The climatologist is taking on both the fossil fuel lobby and those who think the climate fight is futile.

ONE AUGUST AFTERNOON IN 2010, Michael Mann was opening mail in his office at Penn State University when a dusting of white powder emerged from an envelope. At first he thought it was his imagination. “I figured maybe it’s just an old dingy envelope or something,” Mann recalled. His next thought: anthrax.

Mann bolted out of his office and shut the door, washed his hands, and called the cops. Soon, the FBI arrived. Agents retrieved the letter for testing while Mann was left to explain to stunned colleagues why there was police tape sealing his door.

Death threats weren’t exactly the kind of thing Mann ’89 had imagined as an undergrad at Cal, when he was first thinking about a life in academia. But his career as a climate scientist had attracted some very powerful and determined enemies. Over the years, he’d gotten used to verbal attacks and idle threats, but this was on a different level. He began to worry about his family’s safety.

In the end, the powder proved to be cornstarch, but police gave Mann a hotline number just in case. He and his wife put it on the refrigerator.  

Michael Mann Fought Climate Denial. Now He’s Fighting Climate Doom. by Bryan Schatz, California Magazine, Summer 2020 Edition

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