WOW! again I say WOW

The Guardian on the Berkeley Earth project:

'Then there is the fiasco of 2009 that saw roughly 1,000 emails from a server at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) find their way on to the internet. The fuss over the messages, inevitably dubbed Climategate, gave Muller's nascent project added impetus. Climate sceptics had already attacked James Hansen, head of the Nasa group, for making political statements on climate change while maintaining his role as an objective scientist. The Climategate emails fuelled their protests. "With CRU's credibility undergoing a severe test, it was all the more important to have a new team jump in, do the analysis fresh and address all of the legitimate issues raised by sceptics," says Muller.'

This is where the Berkeley group faces its toughest task by far and it will be judged on how well it deals with it. There are errors running through global warming data that arise from the simple fact that the global network of temperature stations was never designed or maintained to monitor climate change. The network grew in a piecemeal fashion, starting with temperature stations installed here and there, usually to record local weather.

'Among the trickiest errors to deal with are so-called systematic biases, which skew temperature measurements in fiendishly complex ways. Stations get moved around, replaced with newer models, or swapped for instruments that record in celsius instead of fahrenheit. The times measurements are taken varies, from say 6am to 9pm. The accuracy of individual stations drift over time and even changes in the surroundings, such as growing trees, can shield a station more from wind and sun one year to the next. Each of these interferes with a station's temperature measurements, perhaps making it read too cold, or too hot. And these errors combine and build up.'

'He will find out soon enough if his hopes to forge a true consensus on climate change are misplaced. It might not be a good sign that one prominent climate sceptic contacted by the Guardian, Canadian economist Ross McKitrick, had never heard of the project. Another, Stephen McIntyre, whom Muller has defended on some issues, hasn't followed the project either, but said "anything that [Muller] does will be well done". Phil Jones at the University of East Anglia was unclear on the details of the Berkeley project and didn't comment.'

Full story at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/feb/27/can-these-scientists-end-climate-change-war

Judith Curry and the Berkely Project get 'The Carbon Brief' treatement, along with an inevitable link with the Koch brothers.

In the headline:
http://www.carbonbrief.org/website

"The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project is a good idea in principle but closer inspection reveals both its funders and research team are wanting in credibility"

BUT sentence this is NOT repeated in the article...(clever stuff, tweet the headline, but not in the article)
http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2011/03/the-best-idea-reconsidered

The Carbon Brief make this statement:

"Given the team's ambition and the reams of data they will be working with, it's surprising that not one qualified climate scientist has been employed to oversee the analysis closely."

"Judith Curry is the only climatologist named as taking part in the study and she has stated that her role in far from central. She said on her blog: "I'm not exactly sure what my originally intended role in this was…. As they have begun analyzing the data, I have completely refrained from commenting on the process or preliminary results".

Judith Curry is a controversial figure, known best for testifying to US congress as a Republican witness on climate science. Curry holds the view that doubt and natural variability make it hard to anticipate whether C02 is responsible for climate change, an opinion also shared by the oil industry."

Well paid PR media professionals at AGW consensus work, spot the linking for an Oil /smear / innuendo

".... an opinion also shared by the oil industry"

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/02/18/the-carbon-brief-the-european-rapid-response-team/

johnny ball on the politics show bbc1 @ 12am re global warming
should be worth catching

The Carbon Brief's Met office profile is revealing.

http://www.carbonbrief.org/profiles/the-met-office

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/02/18/the-carbon-brief-the-european-rapid-response-team/

Theres a surprise..

The Carbon Brief has a go at Freeman dyson..
http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2011/02/freeman-dyson-interviewed-in-the-independent

2 more straws in the wind?

(1) I received my programme for the Edinburgh Science Festival (9-22 April, www.sciencefestival.co.uk)), and as far as I can see there is no mention anywhere of 'climate change'. That's just based on quickly glancing through each page, so I would not want to bet on it yet.

(2) A brief note here: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/02/hollywood_chilly_to_un_plea_fo.html argues that Ban Ki-moon, the nervous and excitable UN chap, has failed to stir up much if any interest in Hollywood where he went to appeal for help on promoting climate change due to man as a catastrophe.

Have the tawdry worlds of IPCC-style spin and CRU-style plotting and scheming lost their appeal?

Is the world's 'greatest ever crisis' now 'yesterday's news'?

I fear not, given the head of political and financial steam built up around it, but a little bit of optimism now and then is good for the soul.

Steve McIntyre opening up the Muir Russell inquiry:
http://climateaudit.org/2011/02/28/the-muir-russell-contract/#more-13144

Apparently the U of East Anglia paid the Muir Russell inquiry over £300,000. David Holland has requested information on the contractual basis of these payments. Situation normal – the UEA has refused to provide the information and it looks like another appeal to the ICO.

this might help a bit.. politicians/civil servant get nervous about the Daily Mail

TODAY (Booker gets to write in the Daily Mail)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361316/The-250bn-wind-power-industry-greatest-scam-age--lies-prove-it.html

If the Daily mail ever decides to go fully sceptical, well game over in the UK politically, for AGW

The Daily Mail, letting an uber sceptic journalist loose amongst it's readers, might mean a msm tipping point is due...

Can't seems to post on the Nature materials thread.

so my comment:

I can see a Josh cartoon here. These climatologists are like Gollum and the ring by not wanting to part with their precious code.

commenting issues again...on three different browsers. i tried deleting cookies to no avail.