'Climategate' scientist speaks out: Climatologist Phil Jones answers his critics in an exclusive...

Nature News ^ | 15 February 2010 | | Olive Heffernan

[neverdem]

Corrected online: 16 February 2010

Climatologist Phil Jones answers his critics in an exclusive interview with Nature.

Phil Jones holds himself defensively, his arms crossed tightly in front of his chest as if shielding himself from attack. Little wonder: Jones has spent the past three months being vilified for his central role in what is now called 'climategate'.

Jones was director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, when, last November, more than 1,000 e-mails and documents were illegally...

--snip--

Jones says that he is unconvinced that the MWP was a global phenomenon, but categorically denies that he has tried to downplay it. "A lot of people have this view that there was a MWP and then a little ice age," he says. "It might not be the case."

--snip--

Corrected:

An earlier version of this story implied that the hockey stick reconstruction ended due to problems with tree ring data. It actually used multiple proxy sources and stopped in 1980 because of the limited availability of proxy records thereafter. The reconstruction by Jones terminated in 1960 because of the problem with divergent tree-ring data.

• References

  1. Jones, P. D. et al. Nature 347, 169-172 (1990). | Article
  2. Jones, P. D., Lister, D. H. & Li, Q. J. Geophys. Res. 113, D16122, doi:10.1029/2008JD009916 (2008). | Article
  3. Mann, M. E., Bradley, R. S. & Hughes, M. K. Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 759-762 (1999). | Article
  4. D'Arrigo, R., Wilson, R., Liepert, B. & Cherubini, P. Global Planet. Change 60, 289-305 (2008). | Article

[Da Coyote]

Jones is the type that is truly unqualified for work in any type of science...but is ideal for professions requiring only week minds backed up by strong egos.

The presidency comes to mind.

[Iowamerican]

I thought the “fill in the blank - gate,” as regards scandals was an American media phrase. This guy has not been vilified by the mainstream American media.

[Da Coyote]

Oops, Obamaloon moment.

That’s “weak minds”...not “week minds”.

[Tribune7]

Nature is now doing personality interviews LOL.

[Dick Bachert]

[Oldpuppymax]

No one vilified Jones. He was just exposed as a phony, liar, fraud and international thug and scoundrel. Not exactly unusual for a leftist.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

LOL!

[justa-hairyape]

..but is ideal for professions requiring only week minds backed up by strong egos.

I call them abstract readers. That is all they read. And typically glorified abstracts is all you find in Nature and Science. No methods and materials sections.

[SunkenCiv]

He can tell us from the gallows. Thanks Ernest, for all these (finally grouped 'em right):

• GM Exec: Hybrids Are Money Losers
• Series of missteps by climate scientists threatens climate-change agenda
  (WaPo wakes up!) to the threat of Climategate to AGW
• Walter Russell Mead: DC Post Runs With Climategate; NY Times Still in Tank
• Scandinavia-gate --IPCC fails.. temperature today roughly similar to that of the 1930's
• A BRAND-SPANKING-NEW IPCC Screw-UP, Hurricane Data Does Not Support Conclusions
• The EPA's Carbon Footprint
• Carbon Fast 2010 (Carbon Fast For Lent
• Conoco Phillips Intensifies Climate Focus (won't renew USCAP membership!)
• Global Warming On the Ropes
• It has been a challenging year for Global Warming/Climate Change
• Carbon dioxide is already absorbing almost all it can.
• Three Major Firms Pull Out of Climate Change Alliance
  [ConocoPhillips, BP America and Caterpillar]

[neverdem]

I call them abstract readers. That is all they read. And typically glorified abstracts is all you find in Nature and Science. No methods and materials sections.

Not if you subscribe, then you get everything. Otherwise, it's just what they deign to make open access to the public besides the abstract.

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx !

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[potlatch]

Thanks Ernest, that’s pretty cute!

[justa-hairyape]

In the past, I spent hundreds of hours in academic Libraries reading Science/Nature and the more disciplined journal articles. Science and Nature are very weak on Materials and Methods, which is all that really matters to someone with a bent toward engineering. Field Engineering was my main occupation many moons ago. The research was for a new career.

Takes me back to the Ozone Hole debate back on the original Internet Newsgroups. They had this FAQ where they would immediately send all CFC Skeptics. The FAQ had rebuttals to the skeptic questions that all referenced articles in Science or Nature. Never did reference any of the more discipline orientated journals. Well how the heck can you find the errors in a Nature or Science article ? They really do not tell you much of what was done.

At any rate, in recent years science articles have become so politicized that they are more or less worthless. Sick and tired of the ubiquitous, and this will become a more significant factor due to Global Warming aka Climate Change. What rubbish.

[wmileo]

What about that mutt from The University of PENN, Michael Mann?

[neverdem]

What about that mutt from The University of PENN, Michael Mann?

IIRC, PSU still has an ongoing investigation of him for the last of four charges against him. His hockey stick that ignored the Medieval Marm Period and the Little Ice Age is scientific fraud, if not criminal fraud. I'd like to see him prosecuted for criminal fraud. The climategate leaked emails and documents might be able to prove it, but I haven't read all of them.

[wmileo]

If he committed fraud in a sane world he would be found guilty as charged. But in the Bizarre World of the American Academic Left, fraud is a way of life.

You can't prosecute a pig for being a ...pig!