Phil Jones, cleared again
HOT OFF THE PRESS: CLICK TO READ
[Hat tip to Hot topic NZ]
The reports are just coming in, but it’s very good news for Professor Phil Jones, the head of the East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) that was the centre of the Climategate “non” affair. From the UK’s Guardian:
The climate scientists at the centre of a media storm over emails released on the Internet were disorganised but did not fudge their results, an independent inquiry into the affair reported today.
The inquiry, the second of three set up in the wake of the controversy, found “absolutely no evidence of any impropriety whatsoever”, according to Lord Oxburgh, who led the investigation.
Chaired by Professor Ron Oxborough, Jones practices where scrutinized and found to be above board. The Panel investigating included:
- Prof Huw Davies, ETH Zürich
- Prof Kerry Emanuel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Prof Lisa Graumlich, University of Arizona.
- Prof David Hand FBA, Imperial College, London.
- Prof Herbert Huppert FRS, University of Cambridge
Once again the charges of the denial movement have been found to be baseless. Conspiracy?
Here is the report in full. I note some of the conclusions:
We saw no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work of the Climatic Research Unit and had it been there we believe that it is likely that we would have detected it. Rather we found a small group of dedicated if slightly disorganised researchers who were ill-prepared for being the focus of public attention. As with many small research groups their internal procedures were rather informal.
Add this result to the growing list of investigations, reports and inquiries that have cleared scientists of all wrong doing.
- Climate scientist Michael Mann cleared by Penn State
- UK Parliamentary Committee finds no evidence of fraud committed by CRU
- Amazongate was a journalistic “beat up”
- Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman has been audited by accounting giant KPMG and found to be clear of any charges of financial irregularities
More analysis to follow once I’ve had time to digest the report’s conclusions.
However, for Professor Jones I hope this brings some much needed relief. The campaign of intimidation and harrassement has placed a heavy toll on this honourable and talented scientist.
[…] also: CRU cleared of scientific malpractice – so much for “climategate” Jones cleared of charges of scientific malpractice: there goes deniers claims of fraud Scientists cleared of malpractice in UEA’s hacked emails inquiry | Environment | […]
Won’t make any difference. The inquiry is just evidence of the coverup, and since a coverup implies conspiracy, then that’s even MORE confirmation of the conspiracy! The “skeptics” can’t lose! Their theory is not falsifiable!
Sad but true, however for those still sitting on the fence it’s further proof. We need to get the meme that “scientists have been investigated and cleared” out there.
Conspiracy theorists won’t give up their conspiracies easily.
But I wonder what will happen if the police review actually does discover who is behind the hacking. Will they be torn by seeing the police report as another whitewash police conspiracy or will they be attracted to a story that perhaps reveals a bigger conspiracy involving denier websites, cynical users of FoI applications, think tanks like the Heartland Institute and the people money rolling them?
[…] The author strives to present climate science as being in a “state of crisis”. However, the recent inquires and investigations in the UK have easily dismissed those claims. What is now clear is just how much of an ersatz “scandal” Climategate really was. […]