Sunday, November 22, 2009

A Scientific Warming Scandal?

It's being called Climategate and it's possibly a scandal of global proportions.
Late on the night of of November 19, news broke on PJM and elsewhere that a large amount of data had been stolen from one of the major climate research institutions by an unknown hacker and made available on the Internet. The institution is the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, home institution for Dr Phil Jones and one of the world’s centers of research into anthropogenic global warming (AGW), or “climate change.”

The hackers released about 172 megabytes of data, and we can be sure examining it closely will take some time. But after a few days, certain things are beginning to become clear.

The data appears to be largely, perhaps entirely, authentic.
The emails are incendiary.
The implications shake the scientific basis for AGW, and the scientific reputations of some of AGW’s major proponents, to their roots.

7 Comments:

Blogger A Nonymous said...

Responsible reporting on this is revealing that many of these emails are being taken out of context.

For example, one researcher used the term "trick" in adjusting some numbers. However, in context, it refers to using a clever mathematical or scientific technique to solve a problem.

The snows of Kilimanjaro are still receding. The emails change nothing.

November 22, 2009 at 2:08 PM 
Blogger A Nonymous said...

BTW, I bet if you hacked the emails of the climate change skeptics, you'd find them exchanging ideas on how to distort the science and who was backing them to do it.

November 22, 2009 at 2:13 PM 
Blogger Bob Bohne said...

Gil - It's possible. It's happened before hasn't it? I remember the Bush administration changing the wording on environmental reports. And Oct. 14, 2009, the L.A. Times released this - The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released a long-suppressed report by George W. Bush administration officials who had concluded -- based on science -- that the government should begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions because global warming posed serious risks to the country.

The report, known as an "endangerment finding," was done in 2007. The Bush White House refused to make it public because it opposed new government efforts to regulate the gases most scientists see as the major cause of global warming.

And this - The blog at RealClimate.org has also had a look at the emails and points out, "More interesting is what is not contained in the emails. There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to ‘get rid of the MWP’, no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no ‘marching orders’ from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords."

November 22, 2009 at 8:36 PM 
Blogger jake said...

Methinks they doth protest too much.

November 22, 2009 at 10:48 PM 
Blogger A Nonymous said...

Bob-
You are right, as usual.

My socialist/communist/vegetarian overlord hasn't contacted me in over a week with instructions. I think he died laughing at Palin's book.

November 23, 2009 at 12:34 AM 
Blogger steve mcdonald said...

There's bob with the usual reference to his hero Bush and Anon-iano with the typical insults and accusations of seedy underhanded dealings. When will this 'change' ever happen?



I'm interested in the environment from two points:

1. What can we utilize to be self sufficient (e.g. Solar, etc)

and...

2. If Science and technology can give us skyscrapers, space exploration and viagra, why can't they develop an enzyme to be sent to the atmosphere to neutralize the excess carbon? Is this a sacrilege to consider such an option? Or are the authors of Super Freakonomics onto something? Would it become an acceptable scenario if Al Gore invests money in a company sutdying an option?

By the way, has Gore won a Teen Choice Award yet? Isn't he due for one?

November 23, 2009 at 8:57 AM 
Blogger Bob Bohne said...

Steve - Thanks for the recognition.

November 23, 2009 at 7:47 PM 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home