It is characteristic of the science and politics of the early twenty-first century to see scientists actively engaged in political debates, and particularly as related to the environment. For example, when a 2003 paper in the journal Climate Research argued that twentieth-century climate variations were unexceptional in millenial perspective, advocacy groups opposed to the Kyoto Protocol predictably hailed the research as “sound science,” while advocacy groups in support of the Protocol called the paper “junk science” (Regalado 2003). In this case, more troubling than the “cherry picking” of scientific results by Issue Advocates is that many scientists' evaluations of the scientific merit of the Climate Research paper correlated perfectly with their public expressions of support for or opposition to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Acceptance of the paper's conclusions was equated with opposition to Kyoto, and correspondingly, rejection of the paper's findings was equated with support for Kyoto. For example, one prominent climate scientist (on record as supporting Kyoto) suggested in testimony before the US Congress that the paper must be bad science because the editor who oversaw its publication had been critical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol (Collins 2003). And the editor (a social scientist who is on record as opposing Kyoto) of a different journal that published a second version of the controversial paper commented, “I'm following my political agenda – a bit, anyway, but isn't that the right of the editor?”