Official 'Climategate' report CLEARS SCIENTISTS of any wrongdoing

[Jezebelle]

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/04/phil_jones_vindicated.php
Phil Jones vindicated

Posted on: April 1, 2010 6:11 AM, by Tim Lambert

The House of Commons report on the emails stolen from CRU has vindicated Phil Jones -- he has "no case to answer":

The focus on Professor Jones and CRU has been largely misplaced. On the accusations relating to Professor Jones's refusal to share raw data and computer codes, we consider that his actions were in line with common practice in the climate science community. We have suggested that the community consider becoming more transparent by publishing raw data and detailed methodologies. On accusations relating to Freedom of Information, we consider that much of the responsibility should lie with UEA, not CRU.

In addition, insofar as we have been able to consider accusations of dishonesty--for example, Professor Jones's alleged attempt to "hide the decline"--we consider that there is no case to answer. Within our limited inquiry and the evidence we took, the scientific reputation of Professor Jones and CRU remains intact. We have found no reason in this unfortunate episode to challenge the scientific consensus as expressed by Professor Beddington, that "global warming is happening [and] that it is induced by human activity"

[Jezebelle]

http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/49201-official-climategate-report-clears-scientists-of-wrongdoing
Official 'Climategate' report clears scientists of wrongdoing


The UK government's first official report into the 'Climategate' scandal has concluded that the University of East Anglia did not tamper with climate data.

But the parliamentary panel added that there was a culture of withholding information at the university's Climatic Research Unit (CRU).

It said that most of the controversy could have been avoided if the unit had simply published all of its data in the first place.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee said it saw no reason to doubt the scientific consensus that global warming is taking place.

The Unit's head, Phil Jones, quit in December, after climate change skeptics alledged he had falsified data, citing emails that they said showed he had massaged figures.

But the panel concluded that, as Jones claimed, he was simply using colloquialisms to describe acceptable statistical procedures.

"We are content that the phrases such as 'trick' or 'hiding the decline' were colloquial terms used in private emails, and the balance of evidence is that they were not part of a systematic attempt to mislead," it said in the report.

It even sympathized with Jones for his reluctance to make data available under the Freedom of Information Act. Jones, for example, replied to one request by saying: "I should warn you that some data we have we are not supposed [to] pass on to others. We can pass on the gridded data — which we do. Even if WMO [World Meteorological Organization] agrees, I will still not pass on the data. We have 25 or so years invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?"

But, said the panel, this has been overplayed. "Whilst we are concerned that the disclosed e-mails suggest a blunt refusal to share scientific data and methodologies with others, we can sympathise with Professor Jones, who must have found it frustrating to handle requests for data that he knew — or perceived — were motivated by a desire simply to undermine his work," the report says.

 

[BM OUT]

Famed global warming activist James Schneider and a journalist friend were both found frozen to death on Saturday, about 90 miles from South Pole Station, by the pilot of a ski plane practicing emergency evacuation procedures.
 
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing", recounted the pilot, Jimmy Dolittle. "There were two snowmobiles with cargo sleds, a tent, and a bright orange rope that had been laid out on the ice, forming the words, 'HELP-COLD'."
 
One friend of Prof. Schneider told ecoEnquirer that he had been planning a trip to an ice sheet to film the devastation brought on by global warming. His wife, Linda, said that she had heard him discussing the trip with his environmental activist friends, but she assumed that he was talking about the Greenland ice sheet, a much smaller ice sheet than Antarctica.
 
"He kept talking about when they 'get down to chili', and I thought they were talking about the order in which they would consume their food supplies", Mrs. Schneider recounted. "I had no idea they were talking about Chile, the country from which you usually fly or sail in order to reach Antarctica."
 
Apparently, while all of Prof. Schneider's friends were assuming that the July trek would be to Greenland, during Northern Hemisphere summer, his plans were actually to snowmobile to the South Pole - which, in July, is in the dead of winter.
 
Mr. Dolittle related how some people do not realize that, even if there has been warming in Antarctica, the average temperature at the South Pole in July still runs about 70 degrees F below zero. "Some people think that July is warm everywhere on Earth."

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