Fraud behind global warming theories
A British panel which was released Wednesday exonerated the scientists from the allegations that they have manipulated their research about the effects of the global warming. However the scientists did not received only positive reviews from the panel; in fact they were mostly criticized for their actions. The scientists had a faulty behavior which drew the attention and the criticism of the media. One of the biggest surprises came from the fact that the scientists were not willing to release the computer files which would sustain their claims regarding the global warming. Because of this, they did not have a proof to back-up their researchers. On top of that, the scientist were criticized for the fact that they were misleading towards the general public in 1999, when they released a chart about past climate.
British and American climate researchers have been were accused that they manipulated the researchers which about the global warming. Their e-mails have been hacked and the messages exchanged between the researchers were posted online. The e-mails casted doubt about the validity of their researched and changed the peoples’ opinion about the science of global warming. The experts who were involved in the research have received much criticism from the global-warming skeptics. The scientists have rejected all these accusations, but even so, it seems that the reputation of the science of global warming had to suffer because of it.
Polls have been immediately made after the discovery of the e-mail and they suggest that the support of the people regarding the action on climate change has been reduced. Other reasons which made the opinion of the people change were that the scientists were not willing to make their data publicly, and that they did not respond in the proper manner to the criticism which they received from the skeptics. Roger Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, said that the e-mails do not change the fundamentals of the global warming science. However he said that the situation has changed the way in which people see an authoritative group. He stated that people no longer trust everything that such a group states, because as the e-mails proved, not everything is true.
Phil Jones, was the main researcher of the team which was accused of providing false information. He is a climatologist who was in charge of the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, which is a British university. He quit his job while investigations in the case are made, but Wednesday he took another job which is very similar to the one he previously held. Myron Ebell, director of energy and climate change policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington stated that what Jones did was immoral and that he should have not taken the new job. He believes that the main problem is that everyone is interested in his own person, and that most of the researchers do not care about the fact that they misguided the people with their information. The University of East Anglia paid for a new report on the global warming, in order to compare the actual results with the ones which the scientists provided.
The Climatic Research Unit had the main task of analyzing the earth’s past climate. They were much respected for what they did, until last November when the e-mails sent by Phil Jones and some of his colleagues were copied from a computer from the university and were then posted online. Soon after the incident Jones and his colleagues received lots of criticism for the way in which they behaved. Some share the opinion that what the intentions of the scientists were honest, and that they really cared about the environment, and about the consequences which the global warming has on the environment. Dr. Jones stated that he, his team, and their science are honest, which has also been confirmed by three external bodies. A report was made some time ago in London, and in the report the reviewers harshly criticized the team of scientists for the way in which they collaborated with the people who wanted to see the data. The report stated that they did not shared their data, practically trying to make the reviewers to trust them and their findings without providing any evidence which could back-up their discoveries.
Another aspect of the e-mails which raised criticism is related to the report which the team released in 1999. The report was released for the United Nations, and in it the team compared the temperatures of the past with the ones from the present. In one of the e-mails, Dr. Jones stated that he used a “trick” in order to “hide” a particular problem of the data. Jones later claimed that by “trick” he meant a maneuver, which could be performed on the computer program. The Russel panel admits that the way in which they obtained the data was done in the right manner; however they believe that the team did not provide too much information about the way in which they got those results.
The team tried to observe the way in which the Earth’s temperature has changed in the last thousands of years. They used the tree rings as a reference, but the problem is that starting with 1960, the trees did not respond in the same manner to the temperature change, as they did in the years prior to that. The tree rings indicate a temperature decrease starting with 1960, and that is not true. This is the reason why all the scientists analyzed the change of the temperature up until to that year. Dr. Jones’s team decided to go with the temperature change up to 1999, the year when the report was released. In order to be able to provide the accurate data, they used the little “trick” performed by Dr. Jones. The problem is that the team forged the data, even if in reality that’s the way in which the temperature evolved.
