Misrepresenting hide the decline

Nov 14, 2011
Bishop Hill in Climate: CRU, Climate: MWP

After uncovering a consistent error in the way the BBC's Richard Black has represented sceptics allegations over the "hide the decline" incident, I thought it might be interesting to see how some other well-known environmentalist correspondents have dealt with the question.

Here's Nature's David Adam:

Most famously, he boasted that he had used a "trick" to "hide the decline" in a temperature chart. Very soon, members of the sceptic community had pounced on these messages as evidence that Jones and others had concealed flaws in their temperature data...

Wow. The same mistake as Richard Black! What about...Geoffrey Lean?

The most quoted of them – about using "a trick" to "hide the decline" – has been widely, but wrongly, spun as evidence of a cover-up of a supposed drop in global temperatures since 1998, an anomalously hot year, which sceptics often cite to support their belief that global warming has stopped

Louise Gray?

The "climategate" scandal erupted after thousands of emails were stolen from the CRU at the end of last year. One email referred to a "trick" to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, prompting claims that scientists were willing to manipulate the data to exaggerate the extent of global warming.

David Rose appears to be an exception.

Article originally appeared on (http://www.bishop-hill.net/).