Deniergate: Turning the tables on climate sceptics

[n2doc]

15:54 14 December 2009 by Michael Marshall and Michael Le Page

"Climategate" has put scientists on trial in the court of public opinion. If you believe climate sceptics, a huge body of evidence involving the work of tens of thousands of scientists over more than a century should be thrown out on the basis of the alleged misconduct of a handful of researchers, even though nothing in the hacked emails has been shown to undermine any of the scientific conclusions.

If we are going to judge the truth of claims on the behaviour of those making them, it seems only fair to look at the behaviour of a few of those questioning the scientific consensus. There are many similar examples we did not include. We leave readers to draw their own conclusions about who to trust.

1. Fun with the sun
In 1991, the journal Science published a paper by researchers Eigil Friis-Christensen and Knud Lassen, then at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen. It included graphs that appeared to show a remarkably close correlation between solar activity and terrestrial temperatures – suggesting that other factors, such as carbon dioxide levels, have little influence on global temperatures.

The graphs were seized on by climate change sceptics and have been widely reproduced ever since. But according to Peter Laut of the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby, the close correlations in the original graphs, and in updated versions published in 1995 and 2000, exist only because of what he describes as a "pattern of strange errors".

more:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18279-deniergate-turning-the-tables-on-climate-sceptics.html

[Ian David]

1. We should stop calling them "Climate Skeptics" and call them "Climate Change Deniers." n/t

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Or wackadoodles.

[onesmallrock]

3. Last time the earth warmed up

the most recent ice age came to an end, the massive glaciers that covered huge parts of the US and Europe melted, sea level rose 30-50 feet......many highly advanced communities were submerged. I'm not saying Atlantis but.....

[timeforpeace]

4. "should be thrown out" That's not true. They want to see it, try to duplicate the results.

[daleo]

5. A paper, debunking the debunkers, so to speak

This is the Laut paper about the "pattern of strange errors", I believe. Worth reading, if you can access this journal.

Laut,P. (2003), Solar activity and terrestrial climate:
An analysis of some purported correlations,
J.Atmos. Solar-Terr.Phys.,65, 801–812.