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The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars tells the story of climatologist Michael Mann, whose research was attacked and emails hacked

FEW scientists have had as hard a time as . In the last 15 years, the climatologist has been accused of incompetence and dishonesty, subjected to Congressional inquiries and had his emails hacked and released online for all the world to see.

鈥淢ann has been accused of incompetence and dishonesty and had his emails hacked鈥�

In , Mann sets out to tell his side of the story. Part autobiography, part furious expos茅, this book is for anyone interested in the science 鈥� and filthy politics 鈥� of climate change.

Mann first became famous, and a target for those who do not believe in man-made climate change, in 1998. Using data from tree rings, he and his colleagues reconstructed how global temperatures had changed over the previous 600 years (). A year later he extended the analysis to cover the past millennium (). Both studies showed the same thing: the 20th century was the warmest for 1000 years. The 鈥渉ockey stick鈥� graph, showing fairly steady temperatures for 900 years and then a sharp rise, became an icon of climate change.

The graph said nothing about what caused the temperature rise, but that didn鈥檛 stop the onslaught. Mann鈥檚 methods came in for unrelenting criticism, particularly from 鈥渃limate sceptic鈥� bloggers, even as further studies confirmed that his graph was basically correct. A lot of the criticism rested on arcane statistical arguments, which Mann delves into in some detail. These sections can make for challenging reading, but will be invaluable for anyone confused by the many claims and counterclaims found online.

Much of the rest of the book is devoted to climate change politics and the movement funded by the fossil fuel industry to cast doubt on climate science. Mann also discusses the 鈥渃濒颈尘补迟别驳补迟别鈥� affair in which his and his colleagues鈥� emails were hacked from a server at the University of East Anglia in the UK and released online.

The crusade against him continues. In early February, an anonymous Facebook campaign tried to , though the university refused to cancel.

Given this constant pressure, it鈥檚 no wonder that New York Times columnist Andrew Revkin describes Mann as . In his book, as in everything else, Mann takes no prisoners. As he recently put it, climatologists .

A pure scientist at heart, Mann nevertheless works hard to explain his results to the wider world, but his technical style makes the book a difficult read at times. Still, it is an admirable attempt to tell the behind-the-scenes story of one of today鈥檚 most vicious scientific battles.