The two conservative authors who tried to discredit his climate change studies will pay him a million dollars for defamation 

Climate scientist Michael Mann has won a lawsuit against two climate change deniers, Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn, who had accused him of abusing data in a similar manner to a paedophile abusing children. The jury has ordered the defendants to pay Mann one million dollars. The lawsuit began in 2012 when Simberg, writing for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, compared Mann’s research to the case of Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State University convicted of sexually abusing minors. Steyn later referred to Simberg’s article in his own piece for National Review, labelling Mann’s research as «fraudulent». Mann sued both authors, alleging that their comments had negatively impacted his career and reputation. The jury ruled that Simberg and Steyn had made false statements with «malice, spite, ill will, revenge, or deliberate intention to harm”.