Saturday, December 05, 2009

If you want to keep up with the Climaquiddick mess,

you might as well just check Watts Up With That every day; he's been beating this like a rug on a nice winter day. Here's one of the big ones:
The Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails.

The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the extent of the warming trend until the end of 2012.
This is pretty big; at the least, they're admitting that the released e-mails and documents throw great doubt on previous figures, and all this needs to be gone over properly; as Watts notes, Quite a bit different from their November 24th statement, which you can read here. For those that still think Climategate has no significant impact on climate science, this revelation tells another story.

Please note the reaction from the Brit Government: The Government is attempting to stop the Met Office from carrying out the re-examination, arguing that it would be seized upon by climate change sceptics. Translation: "You can't do that! What if it doesn't show what we WANT!?" Further translation: "You morons, this isn't about your science, this is about us needing more control over people! And this might mess that up!"

A very important part:
Since the stolen e-mails were published, the chief executive of the Met Office has written to national meteorological offices in 188 countries asking their permission to release the raw data that they collected from their weather stations.

The Met Office is confident that its analysis will eventually be shown to be correct. However, it says it wants to create a new and fully open method of analysing temperature data
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The 'confidence' is face-saving bullcrap, and they know it(all but the True Believers); but the attempt to get the raw data to everyone who wants to study it is very damned important. And the fact is that if there had been a 'fully open method' in place from the beginning, the 'scientists'(no, some of them do NOT deserve that job title) involved in this wouldn't have been able to screw it up the way they did.

And I have to point out that people will have to be watching the data and the 'open method' very damned carefully, because the True Believers and the politicians will be trying very hard to slant it as much as possible, even now when they know people are watching every move. They're counting on A: an all-too-compliant media only spreading what they want and B: threats and scare tactics to get them what they want. And both are endangered, the first by (ta-DAAAAH!!) this here internet thing and second- well, hell, the PRIMARY thing they're scared of is the internet: more and more people are turning away from the major media BECAUSE they don't trust them anymore, and going to this messy PVC cloud of information and opinions; and it can't be controlled by them. They're trying, but it just won't work. And that means somebody can hear or read the latest threat or scare, and start punching keys to search and check it out. And that's really really bad for the people who want to control what you hear, how you hear it and what you think about it.

Added: it should be noted that Al Gore, who chickened out of showing up at the big summit, is absolutely full of crap. And still trying to control your life:
He also brushed aside questions over the reliability of climate science that have followed the publication last month of leaked e-mails between climate experts. He claimed that the scientific consensus around climate change “continues to grow from strength to strength”. He added: “The naysayers are in a sunset phase with a spectacular climax just before they subside from view. This is a race between common sense and unreality.”
Hey, Al? We know who's locked in unreality; your mansion in Tennesee uses HOW MUCH energy a month? And that's one of, what, five mansions? And that big-ass houseboat, and...

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