Because they considered that recent decline to be spurious, Dr. Jones and his colleagues removed it from part of the graph and used direct thermometer readings instead. In a statement last week, Dr. Jones said there was nothing nefarious in what they had done, because the problems with the tree-ring data had been openly identified earlier and were known to experts.
But the graph adorned the cover of a report intended for policy makers and journalists. The nonexperts wouldn’t have realized that the scariest part of that graph — the recent temperatures soaring far above anything in the previous millennium — was based on a completely different measurement from the earlier portion. It looked like one smooth, continuous line leading straight upward to certain doom.
The story behind that graph certainly didn’t show that global warming was a hoax or a fraud, as some skeptics proclaimed, but it did illustrate another of their arguments: that the evidence for global warming is not as unequivocal as many scientists claim. (Go to nytimes.com/tierneylab for details.)
| — |
Findings - Fracas Over Hacked Climate E-Mail Shows Peril of Spinning Science - NYTimes.com Sawickipedia: So the science isn’t incontrovertible after all. The models don’t really work without lots of fudging after all. Making multi-trillion bets based on scientific methodology that would have gotten an F from my high school physics teacher? Lunacy. (via sawickipedia) Rafer sez: (via rafer) Sawickipedia: Inaccurate is another word for wrong in many senses. Also, what if climate change is not caused by man’s C02 emissions? Then we’re making the wrong bets (see Mhyrvold’s comments in the new Freakonomics book). Whether true or not, the sloppy and irresponsible science muddles the discussion to a point where it is very much a faith based argument on either side. Regardless, I still want big, bold bets on renewable, non-carbon energy because the sooner we start the sooner we finish a very long, economically disruptive economic shift. The fact that it could also benefit climate change is a win-win. Carbon-based energy is running out and we need to move. |
-
sawickipedia reblogged this from rafer
-
rafer reblogged this from sawickipedia
-
sawickipedia posted this
