More Fallout from Climategate

Three important posts lately.  Two are from WattsUpWithThat.com and one from Climate Audit concerning the “trick” used to “hide the decline”.

1)  The new and improved hockey stick.  Drudged up from ice core data in Greenland, it turns out that there has been incredible warming lately, but it’s not nearly what it’s been in the past.  I invite you to see my video of the images compiled.  

UPDATE: I’ve posted a second video with voice-over and improved annotation:

2)  The seriously fudged Darwin, Australia data.  I don’t know about it being smoking gun as it’s one example, but it’s truly amazing how much manipulation had to go into the Darwin data points to make them fit a warming trend.  I’ll say it’s deliberate when I see two more examples of this kind of homogenization of the data.

3)  Some people have been decrying the “trick”, saying scientists use “tricks” all the time.  They have a point, but only to a certain degree.  In this case, the “trick” was used to explain why a certain data set was truncated when matched with two other tree-ring data sets.  The “Climategate” emails even show discussions of how to mitigate the impact of this data on the data that “proves” skyrocketing temperatures.  Read the whole thing.

It’s a lot of reading, but it’s clear there were serious shenanigans going on here and with the IPCC directorate.

HEY YOU!  THANKS FOR STOPPING BY from Ace, or HotAir, or wherever you’re dropping in from.  Be sure to visit some of the guys on my blogroll.  More great climate discussions go on at DigitalDiatribes.wordpress.com.

The ClimateGate View from the Autopsy

I’ve been semi-purposefully holding back on the ClimateGate (ugh, I hate naming anything “-gate”) scandal to see how this plays out.  And from what I can tell, there are two camps (surprise!), one group that denies that the problem is not the scientists but the “hackers” that released the data, and another group that seems to think these emails prove that the world is cooling.

From my perspective, I think that turning this on a hunt for the “hacker” is crazy.  It’s obvious from the files that this was a pre-compiled list of information for an FOI request.  It’s also obvious that someone involved in the compiling had a change of heart after reading through some of the material they were compiling, and then decided to release it.  The alternative theory is that someone knew there was an FOI document that was compiled at the CRU, stole it, then looked for information to discredit it.  Both would be released close to the Copenhagen meeting for maximum damage, and that’s what we’ve seen.

Does this disprove Anthropogenic Climate Change?  No.  ( AGW has yet to be concretely proven anyway.)  Does it prove there is a worldwide conspiracy to promote AGW?  No.  However, if there was any good science to come out of the CRU, this document release pretty much discredits it, and I’ll explain why.

• In the code for computer “models” that were supposed to account for planetary temperature changes and predict future changes, there are plenty of comment lines that talk about temperature adjustments to make the data fit the the theory.  Scientists aren’t supposed to do that.  We’re supposed to form theories based upon collected data.  There are many entries of this in the released data from CRU.  Add to this the “trick” to “hide the decline”, and you’ve got people doing things that they shouldn’t be doing.  If there is a decline, report the decline.  Don’t falsify the data.
• The deletion of raw data to avoid an FOI is damning.  Scientists don’t delete data unless it’s garbage, and even then, the methods to collect data are often rerun.  This is physical science as well, so hard, raw data is something you spend years collecting.
• The refusal to cooperate with an FOI request is damning.  All science should be transparent.  If a center is designed to collect climate data, it should be open with that data.  Hiding it makes us wonder what they are hiding and why they are hiding it.  As they say in politics, it’s not the crime that gets you, it’s the cover-up.  And here some very prominent climatologists are hiding things.
• Putting pressure on editors of peer-reviewed journals to exclude “denialists” is probably the biggest sin here.  When you attempt to exclude scientific conclusions to push your own agenda, you are no longer playing the role of scientist, but the role of ignorant Luddite.  Imagine some physicists put pressure on journal editors to exclude Einstein’s work on relativity to push their own Newtonian agenda?  Imagine what the world of physics would be without Einstein’s contributions?  These guys were attempting to bully scientific opinion.  The most memorably example of that is the Church bullying Gallileo.  I now consider these “scientists” more of an AGW “inquisition”.  They’re already using Saul Alinsky’s tactics against the scientists who dispute dangerous AGW.  You can see the faith-based mentality in the people who want to sock it to Pat Michaels.  You don’t see me bent out of shape about the guys who believe in the Electric Sun to the point I want to kick them in the privates.  That kind of emotion should be pulled out of science, but instead we see it permeating the ranks of the AGW proponents.

People who ignore this scandal do so at their own peril.  There are serious problems that should be denounced by the total of the scientific community.

Textbook CME

I’m a big fan of SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.  I’m completely envious of the job these guys have– watch the sun and report any anomalies, as well as collect data from satellites which monitor the sun.  I often sit around and watch movies of the different spectral ranges of the sun, looking at active areas.  I especially like the views we get from the solar observing satellites AHEAD and BEHIND, both of which are in Earth’s orbit but are either ahead of us or behind us.

AHEAD recently recorded a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) that was absolutely stunning, so I wanted to share this with you.

I admit it!

I take vitamins even though the research is showing I’m just making my pee more expensive.

I really do it because my girls get a kick out of setting out my vitamin in the morning.  And then they get mad if I don’t eat the vitamin.

Once they’re old enough to read the published literature, I’m sure it will all end.

The Big Autism Vaccine Hoax

The doctor who spearheaded the “link” between the MMR vaccine and autism fabricated his results.

This isn’t some guy in Korea fabricating cloning. The fear fest that followed these results may have caused several cases of mumps, measels and rubella that could have otherwise been prevented.

Now, most of us have been immunized against the diseases, but in case you don’t know what these three can do, here’s some info from the CDC.

Mumps. Severe complcations can result in encephalitis, sterilzation, deafness. Mumps is also highly contagious.

Measles. Right at the top of the complications box of measles is a warning for ear infections, encephalitis, pneumonia, seizures, and death. Measles is highly contagious and dangerous.

Rubella. Not as serious as the others, but it’s dangerous to pregnant women and causes serious complications to the pregnancy.

This type of scientific dishonesty infuriates me. The silver lining to this whole thing is that the MMR vaccine can be administrated at any age. I hope the parents who refused to give their kids the MMR vaccine will rush them to their pediatrician and get the MMR vaccine.

I’m wondering if Oprah will run a show on autism hoaxes. Jenny McCarthy has been on, blaming her son’s autism on his vaccines.

BTW, the only vaccine now coming with the thimerosal (mercury-based) preservative are the flu vaccines. EDIT: My information comes from the CDC. Currently, 1 of 3 DTaP vaccines has trace thimerosal preservative (DTaP is diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis (aka whooping cough)). Of course, this is from the US listings. What you get in India and Pakistan may contain a different preservative.

RIP, Mars Phoenix Lander

Looks like the Mars Phoenix Lander may be nearing the end of its mission.  The probe confirmed the presence of water just below the surface in the Martian polar region.  It also showed a different soil pH compared to other areas of Mars.  Thank you, Phoenix Lander and all the scientists and engineers who made this a successful mission!

R.I.P. Michael Chrichton

Seems he’s lost his battle with cancer.

I was always a fan of his books. Movies? Eh, not so much. Spoiler below the fold.

Warp Speed Mr. Sulu

Well, it looks great on paper.  They just don’t know how to bend space and time, or how to get that enormous amount of energy.  But hey, it’s a start!

New Vacation Spot: The Lakes of Titan!

Of course, it’s very cold to make liquid ethane (-89 C) and you’d have to breathe methane, but it’s still pretty cool.

Finally– Evidence!

What we’ve all suspected has been confirmed by instrumentation– there’s a big layer of ice just below the surface of Mars.

Very cool.