Met Office to re-examine 160 years of climate data

[FarCenter]

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.

The Met Office database is one of three main sources of temperature data analysis on which the UN’s main climate change science body relies for its assessment that global warming is a serious danger to the world. This assessment is the basis for next week’s climate change talks in Copenhagen aimed at cutting CO2 emissions.

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.

The Met Office works closely with the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU), which is being investigated after e-mails written by its director, Phil Jones, appeared to show an attempt to manipulate temperature data and block alternative scientific views.

The Met Office’s published data showing a warming trend draws heavily on CRU analysis. CRU supplied all the land temperature data to the Met Office, which added this to its own analysis of sea temperature data.

<SNIP>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6945445.ece

[The Straight Story]

1. This is interesting:

"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."

If someone is a skeptic of our beliefs, we don't want them to be able to get any leverage on things, so we are worried that they might.

Why would anyone be worried about skeptics getting a hold of information/data? Don't we just want the truth?

Millions have seen/heard ghosts, many throughout history have seen ufo's. Yet skeptics abound. What is wrong with being skeptical??

[DJ13]

2. What is wrong with being skeptical??

GW has morphed beyond science into a pseudo-religious belief reinforced by political opportunists.

Religions dont like skeptics.

[Viking12]

3. They're not sceptics.

They're deniers that do not act in good faith and are only trying to generate salacious material for disinformation campaigns.

[vadawg]

4. exactly what someone who thinks this is their religion is going to say

dude you just cant stand the thought of anyone who dosent follow your religion without question....

[wuushew]

6. Can you please outline your beliefs on climate change

as to avoid misunderstanding in potential future exchanges on the matter?

[Viking12]

7. If you want to be consider a sceptic, you need to understand the basics first.

So far the only contribution I've seen from you are straight from Rush's show.

[vadawg]

10. basics, are there are some people who believe, others that dont

i lie in the middle, if you want me to totally change my life then i need more than i am seeing to convince me to change..

[ananda]

11. Nothing wrong with skepticism per se.

But the witchhunt mentality behind the attacks
on science are fueled by extreme denialism and
hate.

What happened is that the Bush admin started
an initiative against science which has been
seized upon by the corporate rightwing and
the manipulated fringe.

I don't think the science behind AGW is
questionable or at risk.

[vadawg]

5. +1 it seems that we must all abandon any free thought on this subject

and that we must all accept without question what we are told, is there any other subject in the world were people are not alloweed to have doubts or questions. This is turning into a religion....

[Viking12]

8. Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out. ...

[vadawg]

9. well i hope you follow your advice and keep an open mind either way

i deal with evidence all the time so i have to keep my mind open so i am able to get to the facts of the case, normally what one person tells you is no nearer the truth than what another does, the truth always lies between...

[Viking12]

13. aahhhh, the fallacy of the middle ground

I wouldn't trust anyone who makes that argument to deal with any evidence on any topic.

[The Straight Story]

15. Part of having an open mind is being open to thoughts you may not agree with

Why is asking for more info/data a bad thing? We have people here on DU who question 9/11, war on terror, etc and so on - why is questioning data about this one topic something which leads to flame wars/name calling?

I remember Mylar, etc and so on - where we heard that X causes cancer, Y causes Z, and so on, only to hear later that 'oops, we were wrong'.

[Viking12]

17. Almost all of the "opposing" thoughts on this subject are repetitious nonsense

If you've got something substantive to say and have evidence to back it up, I had happily consider it.

[The Straight Story]

19. If you seek the truth

then you will look for such yourself.

Kind of like I have over the years when it comes to religion, ghosts, etc.

I don't just look for those whom support what I believe, I look for those who don't.

Leaving such a quest to others and asking THEM to give you evidence means, to me anyway, you are not really looking all that hard for the truth.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. I'm enjoying this nontroversy.

All the freeper trolls are coming out of the woodwork.

[tabatha]

14. The raw data did not disappear.

"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."

also

"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".

I can see no harm in this - it will shut the GWDers up.

[wryter2000]

16. Nothing will ever shut them up

Every time there's snow in January they'll declare that proves there's a new ice age coming and we'd better burn some more coal to warm things up.

[tabatha]

18. Some may shut up if they have a brain.

The others will refuse to believe anything than what they decide is true.