[Vision2020] Video/Transcript: Climate Scientist Michael Mann on CNN Regarding Climate Research Unit E-mail Hack

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2009/dec/08/video-michael-mann-cnn-scientists-mathematicians-o/

 CNN: What does he mean by saying the word "trick?"

Michael Mann: Scientists, Mathematicians often use the word 'trick' in the
sense of a clever approach to solving a problem. We had one data set that
stretched way into the past, but it didn't come up to the present. It
stopped in 1980. At the same time, we had more recent data that showed how
the Earth has warmed in the subsequent decades, and in order to understand
the longer term data, it needs to be put in the context of the more recent
data, so that the relative warmth today can be compared to the relative
warmth in the past, and so the trick was simply presenting these two data
sets together so that they could be compared against each other. It was
completely out in the open. So, there was nothing hidden or secret. It was
just what my colleague was calling a clever way to present the data.

CNN: What about the word decline? What is that referring to?

MANN: He refers to tree ring information. They were looking at the density
of the wood, that formed in those annual growth bands, and it turns out that
measure is highlighted with summer temperatures, where these tress grow.

(SOT describing tree ring formations)

MANN: In this email that referred to the "decline," was simply referring to
the fact that these data shouldn't be used after 1960, because of this
divergence---because of this decline. So this was something that was
completely out in the open. It was in the published literature.

CNN: No cover up?

MANN: No cover up. It was perhaps it was a poor choice of words. Again, I
imagine if my colleague, if he knew, that his personal e-mails were going to
be read by the entire world, he might have been a little bit more careful in
how he worded things.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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