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Bishop Hill: Gonzo science and the Hockey Stick ( Prof Mann and the Hockeystick )
The Register ^ | 8th February 2010 13:25 GMT | Andrew Orlowski

Posted on 02/09/2010 10:05:17 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

Torturing the climate numbers until they confess

Interview In 2001 the IPCC published its Third Assessment report prominently featuring a graph that became "the logo of global warming". Previous historical reconstructions didn't show our modern warm climate as particularly anomalous. This was very different, and was hailed as a "call to action". Yet Michael Mann's studies were deeply flawed. Omit one or two proxies, for example, and the scary warming 'spike' disappears. Mann's model could produce hockey stick shapes using random data, such as baseball scores, or red noise. Critics alleged that Mann's choices of data and statistical tools all cooled the Medieval Warm Period, and emphasised late 20th Century warming.

A new book recounts how the 'Hockey Stick' model was created and more intriguingly, the political and institutional defence of the indefensible. (At one stage the Hockey Stick's defenders argued that trees on different continents had "teleconnections" with each other - a claim that wouldn't be out of place in a homeopathy brochure.)

Andrew Montford, a science publisher and blogger under the name Bishop Hill, has provided the storytelling to match the detective work and persistence of another blogger, Steve McIntyre, who dismantled the Stick. Andrew talked to us about The Hockey Stick Illusion and some of the key issues it highlights.

You say the IPCC needed the Hockey Stick to be true, and that's why it got such prominence. Was this the best they could do?

If you put any of the other major temperature reconstructions in place of the Hockey Stick I think it's true to say it doesn't look so frightening. They have a Medieval Warm Period that is within a whisker of the temperatures we have now. You can make them look scarier by overlaying the instrumental record over the 20th Century part of the graph - in fact, that's part of the reason why it looks scary. I show this in the book - in Briffa series [see below].

But [these reconstructions] wouldn't convince anybody there's anything going on there at all. So yes, they needed it to convince people; and they promoted it, they had policies to sell. And when it proved to be flawed they had to stand behind it, because otherwise, they'd look stupid.

Now to the story. The preparation of the original Hockey Stick turns out to be a small part of the saga. How the issues McIntyre raised were dealt with by the scientists and the establishment is the main story.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Conspiracy; Weather
KEYWORDS: amazongate; carbontrade; climatechange; climatechangedata; climategate; glaciergate; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; globalwarmingscandal; globqalwarminghoax; ipcc; pachauri; pachaurigate
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This is an EXCERPT

1 posted on 02/09/2010 10:05:17 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: SunkenCiv; Marine_Uncle; Fred Nerks; steelyourfaith; NormsRevenge; Oynx

fyi


2 posted on 02/09/2010 10:06:23 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; proud_yank; meyer; Horusra; Para-Ord.45; rdl6989; mmanager; FreedomPoster; ...
Thanx !

 



Prostitute "Scientist",
Son of Log Lady !

3 posted on 02/09/2010 10:08:24 AM PST by steelyourfaith (FReepers were opposed to Obama even before it was cool to be against Obama.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

“We oppose torture of terrorists. Torture is only to be used for climate change data!”


4 posted on 02/09/2010 10:19:36 AM PST by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: steelyourfaith; Marine_Uncle; Grampa Dave; SierraWasp; BOBTHENAILER; BIGLOOK; LucyT

Bootnote

This week Michael Mann was exonerated by his employer Penn State University, after an internal misconduct investigation. The investigators failed to contact McIntyre, Wegman or any other critics of Mann's work [PDF, 102kb] One of the two investigators admitted he had not read the Climategate emails at all. However, his work has been forwarded to a full investigating committee which will examine whether Mann is "undermining confidence in his findings as a scientist, and given that it may be undermining public trust in science in general and climate science specifically".

5 posted on 02/09/2010 10:36:11 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

LOL!


6 posted on 02/09/2010 10:38:00 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: All; SunkenCiv
Link to Amazon:

The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science (Independent Minds) (Paperback)

There are three reviews at the moment worth reading....

7 posted on 02/09/2010 10:46:34 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: PapaBear3625; Biggirl; Carry_Okie; Duke C.; Slyscribe; lakeprincess; bruinbirdman; Schnucki; ...

pinging some of those who posted threads related to the Global Warming Hoax,.....


8 posted on 02/09/2010 10:59:12 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

The Register is widely read in the US by software pros. This will give the story legs in the US, despite the boycott by the US MSM.


9 posted on 02/09/2010 11:16:10 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: PapaBear3625; Marine_Uncle
I was just reading thru the 10 page PDF from Penn State :

http://www.research.psu.edu/orp/Findings_Mann_Inquiry.pdf

And I see this was simply Administrators on the Committee....there is a second committee of Five that are going to examine ....

allegation #4 revolves around the question of accepted faculty conduct surrounding scientific discourse and thus merits a review by a committee of faculty scientists.

I don't see anyone specifically labeled as a Statistical Scientist....

This book should be very useful....course they could ignore it...also!!

10 posted on 02/09/2010 11:47:15 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: PapaBear3625; NormsRevenge; Grampa Dave; SierraWasp; Marine_Uncle; BOBTHENAILER; thackney; ...
We need to start focusing in on some of these BAD ACTORS and (figuratively ) start nailing them to the Cross as a public warning !

I think this guy has a nice target painted on his back...After him would be Hansen at Goddard....

11 posted on 02/09/2010 11:54:09 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

The GW hoax is in big trouble. haha


12 posted on 02/09/2010 12:02:13 PM PST by GeronL (Dignity is earned from yourself. Respect is earned from others.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Penn State better find something rotten in their research department. The stench is only going to become more powerful.....


13 posted on 02/09/2010 12:09:32 PM PST by Brett66 (Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: GeronL; NormsRevenge; Grampa Dave; SierraWasp; Carry_Okie; tubebender; ErnBatavia; bd476; ...
The Politicians are still running with "CO2 is a polluting Green House Gas"....

We have it going on right here in California with Attorney General Jerry Brown playing Games with a State Initiative...not sure of the Facts but they were having a heavy discussion yesterday on KFI's John and Ken Show regarding some things and dirty tricks being played ...by politicians....

Pinging others from California that might be more uptodate on this specific action here in California.

14 posted on 02/09/2010 12:12:33 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Thanks, yes I saw this! ;-)


15 posted on 02/09/2010 12:14:52 PM PST by iloveamerica1980 (Topop)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; SierraWasp; Grampa Dave; NormsRevenge; thackney
We need to start focusing in on some of these BAD ACTORS and (figuratively ) start nailing them to the Cross as a public warning !

Couldn't agree more.

There are literally TRILLIONS in useless taxes, increased energy bills, stalled out REAL energy development (Oil & Gas Exploration, Nuclear, Coal, Oil Shales) that are at stake here.

We are talking GENERATIONS OF ENERGY USE.

AND THEY WANT THEIR HANDS ON ALL OF IT.

16 posted on 02/09/2010 12:19:24 PM PST by BOBTHENAILER ( EPA will rule your life)
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To: BOBTHENAILER; Ernest_at_the_Beach; potlatch; devolve; ntnychik

Hey, Algore, get your fat ass over here and shovel this global warming.

17 posted on 02/09/2010 12:25:07 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hussein: Islamo-Commie from Kenya)
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To: All
And:

Clickable Link to the IPCC Home Page.

**************************************

The IPCC has started work on the preparation of its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).

We are currently looking for experts who can act as authors:

18 posted on 02/09/2010 12:34:00 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Thanks Ernest.


19 posted on 02/09/2010 12:34:32 PM PST by potlatch (- What a co-inky-stink!)
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To: PhilDragoo; devolve

Has Al had anything to say recently? He seems to be in hiding, lol.


20 posted on 02/09/2010 12:36:03 PM PST by potlatch (- What a co-inky-stink!)
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