Atrazine Environmentalist Turns to E-bullying

KALEITA: Environmentalist turns to e-bullying
Researcher proves he types faster than he thinks
By Amy Kaleita – The Washington Times

In the wake of “Climategate,” in which a series of leaked e-mails among prominent climate scientists showed concerted efforts to silence competing researchers and manipulate the peer-review process, one would think scientists as a group would be increasingly cognizant of the tone and content of their communications. But at least one well-known scientist seems to be exactly the opposite.

Tyrone Hayes, a research scientist at the University of California at Berkeley, has for many years been a leading voice in the anti-pesticide movement. In fact, his studies on atrazine, while repudiated by many health authorities around the world, have been a mainstay in the efforts of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Pesticide Action Network North America and others to ban pesticides. His influence is such that a newly activist Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently cited an NRDC report and press stories based in part on Mr. Hayes’ work when instituting its unprecedented re-review of atrazine – which many believe is the first target in what is a broader campaign against agricultural and industrial chemicals integral to our 21st-century economy.

After many years of trying to resolve the issue privately, the agri-chemical company Syngenta – the maker of atrazine – recently released the text of some of the e-mails it has been receiving from Mr. Hayes, going back to 2002. The professor’s studies and findings are barely mentioned in his e-mails. Instead, the e-mails are obscene, threatening and sexually explicit. They show a megalomaniacal streak in which Mr. Hayes consistently speaks not of his research, but of his personal power and prowess.

Read the rest of Amy Kaleita’s Washington Times article here.