The Times of London had a blockbuster of an item in its reporting of ClimateGate:
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.
This is serious, isn’t it? One of the key government institutions, globally, on climate issues is, according to The Times stating that ClimateGate has “shattered confidence in the science on man-made global warming” and has committed to a three-year effort to reexamine the data.
In fact, it is serious. It is a serious example of a serious traditional media outlet making a serious misrepresentation of what is actually going on.
The Times report led me to query the Met Office.
I have looked at your website and press releases. Nothing there suggests any Met Office “admission” or statement about public confidence. Is there such a statement?
And, your press release seems to discuss plans to release data, as you are authorized to do so, rather than any fundamental plans to “re-examine” the data. Did the Times story accurately reflect your plans?
Here is the response that I just received:
The Met Office has no plans to re-evaluate the global temperature climate data.
The Met Office is totally confident that the global temperature record is valid. It is supported by two independent analyses, NASA GISS and NCDC, and all clearly demonstrate the rise in global temperature over the last 150 years. This is supported by other observed changes such as melting Arctic sea ice, glacier retreat and rising sea levels.
The Met Office is planning to release station temperature data records from over one thousand stations that go to make up the global land surface temperature record We are completely confident that this subset will show the rise in global average temperatures.
I assume that while The Times has issued a correction (oops, no, they haven’t, at least not as of 2 pm in London … we can expect they will, can’t we?) we will see none of the denialosphere outlets trumpeting that correction.
A note re ClimateGATE / SwiftHACK
SwiftHack.com – Reality-based news and analysis related to the ClimateGate story. The site will serve as an informal clearinghouse for pushback against the rapidly developing ‘SwiftHack’ smear campaign against climate science.
Scientists, advocates, activists, bloggers and journalists have begun the important work of educating their audiences on the true story of ‘ClimateGate — the latest iteration of a decades-long smear campaign against climate science). SwiftHack.com intends to be a repository of such efforts. With talks now underway in Copenhagen, correcting the false narratives being pushed by an army of oil-funded deniers is especially critical.