In their recent open letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology, as many as 255 US scientists - including 11 Nobel laureates - who are all members of the US National Academy of Sciences, have defended research pertaining to climate change.

Maintaining that climate change is real, the letter, published in ‘Science’, largely drew attention to the “recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular.”

Accusing their opponents of “McCarthy-like” tactics, the scientists called for an end to “threats of criminal prosecution against our colleagues based on innuendo and guilt by association, the harassment of scientists by politicians seeking distractions to avoid taking action, and the outright lies being spread about them.”

Clearly, the reference in the letter was directed at Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., who has said that most climate change data is a “hoax”, and has also threatened a criminal investigation of the University of East Anglia climate science team whose e-mail correspondence was hacked by opponents. The release of the emails hinted at errors made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Meanwhile, an editorial in the ‘Science’ issue cautioned that with the debate over global warming becoming perilously “polarized,” not only the scientific enterprise, but also the society as a whole, is at risk of losing its “crucial rational relationship.”