CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENTIST CLEARED, VALIDATING SCIENCE

'Hockey stick' graph creator Michael Mann cleared of academic misconduct
Suzanne Goldenberg, 3 February 2010 (UK Guardian)

"The American scientist who produced the 'hockey stick graph' showing a sharp rise in global warming was largely cleared of misconduct by an academic investigation…The board of inquiry at Pennsylvania State University said it found no evidence that Michael Mann, a leading climatologist, had suppressed or falsified data, tried to destroy data or emails, or misused information. It will convene a second panel to investigate whether he had violated academic practices, including those governing exchanges between scholars.

"The university ordered the investigation by three senior faculty members after Mann's name appeared in more than 375 of the hacked emails from the University of East Anglia's climate research unit. Climate change sceptics jumped on one email which describes Mann's solution to a problem as a 'trick,' a shorthand among scientists and mathematicians, as evidence of an effort to distort data…The panel dismissed the charge… cleared Mann of purposely hiding or destroying email relating to an IPCC climate change report…[and] found nothing to support the charge that Mann had conspired with like-minded scholars to block competing scholars."

Mann's hockey stick graph shows the global average temperature sharply rising. (click to enlarge)

[Board of inquiry, Pennsylvania State University:] "The so-called 'trick' was nothing more than a statistical method used to bring two or more different kinds of data sets together in a legitimate fashion by a technique that has been reviewed by a broad array of peers in the field…"

[Michael Mann, climatologist, Pennsylvania State University:] "After a thorough review, the independent Penn State committee found no evidence to support any of the allegations against me. Three of the four allegations have been dismissed completely…This is very much the vindication I expected since I am confident I have done nothing wrong."

A map of the last decade shows it was the hottest on record. Mann was right. (click to enlarge)

[Peter Frumhoff, director of climate policy, Union of Concerned Scientists:] "This is a step in the right direction that should help us move past the manufactured controversy over the stolen emails…The truth is that global warming is here, it's dangerous, and it is already affecting us."

"… Mann has become a favourite target of climate change deniers because of the powerful image of his hockey stick graph, which shows a sharp rise in average global temperature in the 20th century – and they are unlikely to stop now. The graph assembled data from hundreds of studies of past temperatures using tree rings, lake sediment, and glacier ice cores. It was first published in 1998."