【Nathan Cajucom Archives】

U.S. climate scientists say they worry the incoming Trump administration might do Nathan Cajucom Archivesmore than cut off their research funding. Some also fear they could receive personal attacks and death threats simply for doing their jobs.

Michael Mann, a climate researcher at Penn State University, said he knows exactly what that's like.

Over the last decade, Mann has been singled out by Republican senators and Pennsylvania and Virginia officials, who falsely accused the scientist of distorting his data and perpetuating the "hoax" that human activities are causing climate change.

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump's anti-climate science shakedown just started

"I've faced hostile investigations by politicians, demands for me to be fired from my job, threats against my life and even threats against my family," Mann said in a Sunday op-ed in the Washington Post.

Mann, who directs Penn State's Earth System Science Center, recalled the time in 2010 when he opened an envelope at his desk and white powder fell into his fingers, which at first he feared was anthrax. (It was cornstarch.) He used to get emails with warnings like "the public will come after you" or suggesting he'd find himself "six feet under."

Mann said those threats have diminished in recent years as more Americans have come to understand and accept the global scientific consensus on human-caused climate change -- and as President Barack Obama accelerated efforts to fight greenhouse gas emissions and develop renewable energy.

But President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to undo many of Obama's gains on climate change.

Trump himself is a climate-denier who recently claimed, falsely, that "nobody really knows" what's happening to the planet. Many of his cabinet picks, including for Environmental Protection Agency administrator and Secretary of Energy, similarly reject the scientific conclusions shared by 97 percent of the world's climate scientists.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's most authoritative group of climate experts, has said it is "extremely likely" that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions have been the "dominant cause" of observed global warming trends since the mid-20th century.

Mann said that he and his colleagues are now "bracing for a renewed onslaught of intimidation, from inside and outside government," given the coming changes in Washington.

"I fear the chill that could descend," he wrote in the op-ed.

Trump's pick to head the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, calls himself a "leading advocate" against the agency's climate policies. In this picture, Pruitt arrives at Trump Tower in New York on Dec.7, 2016. Credit: Spencer platt/ Getty Images

Those fears aren't only based on past events.

The Trump transition team in early December sent an unusually detailed questionnaire to the Energy Department, which demanded the names of employees who attended U.N. climate talks in the last five years or assisted in other climate-related projects under Obama.

Trump's team later backed away from the questionnaire after the Energy Department issued a statement saying that the memo "left many in our workforce unsettled" and that the agency would not turn over the names of individuals.

At a rally last week in San Francisco, hundreds of climate scientists, including Mann, promised to "stand up for science" during the Trump administration.

"We're people with real fears, both as scientists and as citizens," Geoffrey Supran, a rally organizer and MIT and Harvard climate researcher, told Mashable.

"I see that as more reason for us to stand up for what we know to be true," he said.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Gov. Jerry Brown says California will build its 'own damn satellite' under Trump

---

Topics Donald Trump

• Entertainment
• Life
• Science
• Digital Culture
• Tech
• Games
• Deals
• Shopping

• Whale Vomit Episode 5: Startup Monarchy
• In Which George du Maurier Feels Neglected By His Mom
• The Nervous Systems of Books
• Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s Tokyo Noir
• What's Thermal Throttling and How to Prevent It
• How to (Hypothetically) Smuggle a Cheese Ball Through Airport Security
• Roz Chast’s Vibrant Painted Eggs
• Interviewing Philip Levine: A Remembrance
• Best robot vacuum deal: Save $300 on the roborock Qrevo Edge
• “Mating” Book Club, Part 1: Chasing Waterfalls

• How to teach sustainable habits to kids
• This dead hacker's account could be the key to the big Twitter hack
• Tinder and Delta want to help you pretend to be a world traveler on your dating profile
• Never believe any breaking report on Twitter naming this comedian as the attacker
• Kendall Jenner is too cool to wear a fanny pack on her fanny
• Marco Rubio's attempt to hug Ivanka Trump is peak awkward
• Bitcoin hasn't hit $500K, so now John McAfee has to eat his own...well, just click
• Pipeline problem? This tech company says 'No excuses' with a transparent diversity report
• What it would take for a big box chain like Walmart to go package
• Google Maps just made it way easier to rent a bike in 10 cities

• Apple is reportedly still working on smart glasses of some kind
• Alexis Arnold’s Frozen Books
• The Thirteen Club: Dispelling Superstition Since 1882
• Trollope Gets His 65,000 Words Back
• Best soundbar deal: Get $50 off the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus
• “Bankspeak”: Your New Least Favorite Language
• Our Shrinking Vocabulary of Landscape
• The Red Carpet: Last Bastion of Psychiatry
• Bargaining For the Common Good
• Is the Legend of Zelda Even a Legend? Games and Storytelling

• Nintendo Switch 2 release date, price announced
• Glitch Art Goes for Broke
• John Jeremiah Sullivan Wins Windham Campbell Prize
• In Which St. Patrick Drives the Gummy Snakes Into the Sea
• MacBook Air reviews: 4 features critics loved, 4 they didn’t
• Why Do We Personify the Weather?
• Presenting “Big, Bent Ears,” A New Multimedia Project
• Piglets & Ghosts: The Unique Thrills of Mexican Paperbacks
• Use Gmail Offline and Enable Email Scheduling & Snoozing
• Announcing This Year’s Plimpton Prize and Terry Southern Prize Winners