Republicans harass climate science researchers

The following is from the Union of Concerned Scientists, with a petition to Congress to tell the Congressional regressives to quit harassing them for doing their job, i.e., climate science.

"Climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are being bullied by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. A peer-reviewed paper NOAA scientists published in Science refutes claims of a global warming slowdown, which is a popular climate denial narrative, so Representative Lamar Smith (TX-21), chairman of the committee, is using subpoenas and depositions to go after the scientists who wrote it.

"Make no mistake—this isn’t about accessing more data or better understanding the research. NOAA’s data and methodology have been publicly available for months, and NOAA scientists met multiple times with committee staff to answer questions about the research. This subpoena for emails and other confidential information is about Chairman Smith abusing his congressional power to cast doubt on the science and smear the scientists for publishing results that don’t align with his climate denial. 

"The harassment by the House Science Committee isn’t just a problem for NOAA scientists—it’s a problem for all scientists and the public. Scientists and researchers need to be able to spend their time doing the scientific work we heavily rely on, whether that's making sure our air is safe to breathe, predicting the path of hurricanes, or researching new drugs to fight disease. But when scientists are afraid of political interference or being unfairly targeted for their work, they can't do their jobs—and we all lose out. 

"Stand up for science and call on Chairman Smith to stop bullying climate scientists."