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Tag: climategate

“Climategate” deflated, but the damage is done

“A lie can get halfway around the world while the truth is still putting its boots on.”

Some media outlets have finally come around to admitting their mistake in the “Climategate” fiasco, but it may be too little, too late.  After the computer break-in that revealed supposedly damaging emails from scientists at the East Anglia Climate Research Group, much of the media perpetuated the same mess of errors and misrepresentations, mostly cherry-picked quotes taken out of context and spun to support the anti-science crowd’s suspicions of the “Global Warming Swindle.”

“Sharp eyed investigators began to apply a seldom used analytical technique: they actually read the email.”

Since then of course, the scientists involved have all been cleared and people who actually read the emails and took the time to understand the context have revealed “Climategate” for the shameful spinfest that it was.  Of course, that hasn’t stopped the deniers, and unfortunately the damage done is not so easily undone.

I’ve been following a really great series on YouTube, Greenman3610’s Climate Denial Crock of the Week with Peter Sinclair.  Sinclair does a great job of taking apart the “Climategate” claims in the following short set of videos, and has some fun doing it too.  Be sure to pass these around to the deniers in your life.

Climategate: No proof of fraud

This won’t stop the deniers of course, but good news nonetheless:

On the much cited phrases in the leaked e-mails—”trick” and “hiding the decline”—the Committee considers that they were colloquial terms used in private e-mails and the balance of evidence is that they were not part of a systematic attempt to mislead.

Insofar as the Committee was able to consider accusations of dishonesty against CRU, the Committee considers that there is no case to answer.

The Committee found no reason in this inquiry to challenge the scientific consensus as expressed by Professor Beddington, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, that “global warming is happening [and] that it is induced by human activity”. But this was not an inquiry into the science produced by CRU and it will be for the Scientific Appraisal Panel, announced by the University on 22 March, to determine whether the work of CRU has been soundly built.