Whose science is Gored?

Vice President Gore is no rocket scientist, but he is smart enough to know that the global-warming catastrophe theory is, well, flawed. However, "warming" is an invaluable political weapon in the environmentalist war against the bourgeoisie, and Mr. Gore doesn't want to lose it. Knowing that the theory won't stand up to the scrutiny of science, he goes after scientists.

If they are inside government, like William Happer at the Department of Energy, Mr. Gore has them fired. If they rely on government grants, like Hugh Ellsaesser of the Livermore National Laboratory, he gets the word through that their money will be cut off unless they shut up. If they are outside his direct reach, he smears them. Witness the Veep's assault on the mild-mannered S. Fred Singer, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and head of the Science and Environmental Policy Project. Ted Koppel revealed on Nightline early this year that Mr. Gore had personally called him to urge that he investigate Dr. Singer's supposed industry connections.

It now transpires that Mr. Gore was up to his neck in another attempt to manipulate the "warming" fight. Mr. Gore had written that it was Roger Revelle, a professor of his at Harvard, who first kindled his interest in global warming, and the Veep has frequently represented Professor Revelle as a believer like himself. So it was inconvenient when Revelle's name appeared along with Dr. Singer's as co-authors of a 1991 article expressing skepticism about the scare.

The piece had little impact until more than a year later, when commentator Gregg Easterbrook drew attention to it. In the meantime Revelle had died of a heart attack. Mr. Gore responded to Mr. Easterbrook - we now know - by personally calling a colleague of Revelle's at Harvard, Justin Lancaster, and suggesting that Dr. Singer had taken advantage of Dr. Revelle's deteriorating health to procure his signature on the co-authored piece. After exchanging many faxes with Vice President Gore's staffers, Dr. Lancaster took up this theme of malfeasance eventually provoking Dr. Singer to file a defamation suit.

That suit was settled last week in Professor Singer's favor with a statement by Dr. Lancaster fully recanting and apologizing: "... I retract as unwarranted any and all statements, oral and written, I have made which imply that Professor Revelle was not a true and voluntary co-author ..."

Mr. Gore has meanwhile gone to ground. Have things warmed up too much for him?