Climate Audit
Encyclopedia
Climate Audit is a blog
which was founded on 31 January 2005 by Steve Mcintyre
.
The New York Times has called it "a popular skeptics’ blog".
The website has won the 2007 Best Science Blog award
and was a runner up in the same category in 2008.
described as attacks on his work by the blog RealClimate
. RealClimate was a blog started two months earlier by Michael E. Mann, Gavin Schmidt
, Stefan Rahmstorf
, and other climate scientists.
Dr Judith Curry
of the Georgia Institute of Technology
has said "McIntyre started the blog climateaudit.org so that he could defend himself against claims being made at the blog Realclimate
with regards to his critique of the “hockey stick” since he was unable to post his comments there". She has also referred to this site as one of several "Climate Auditor" websites.
with Jonathan Leake of The Times
writing, "The storm began with just four cryptic words. 'A miracle has happened,' announced a contributor to Climate Audit, a website devoted to criticising the science of climate change." Louise Gray wrote in The Daily Telegraph
, "Climate Audit was one of the first to post up the stolen emails from the University of East Anglia that led to the 'climategate' scandal". Bloomberg
said of the controversy, "Web sites and blogs including the Climate Audit Mirror Site have carried copies of e-mails, correspondence between climatologists and commentary. In one e-mail cited widely on blogs including Climate Audit, Phil Jones writes about completing “Mike’s nature trick of adding in the real temps” in order to hide the decline." According to Science Magazine, Jones wrote e-mails stating that he convinced Freedom of Information Act officers to not release data to climate skeptics because Jones believed that they planned to harm the UAE or setback climate science. "Think I've managed to persuade UEA to ignore all further FOIA requests if the people have anything to do with Climate Audit," Jones wrote. The House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee largely vindicated the scientists involved in the scandal, but left consideration of the quality of the science and the conduct of the research to committees chaired by Lord Oxburgh and Sir Muir Russell. McIntyre, who also worked at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) and submitted notes to the committee for its investigation, wrote a lengthy rebuttal of the decision to vindicate the scientists on the blog. "Contrary to the University of East Anglia
's claims, there is no valid statistical procedure supporting the substitution of tree ring proxy," said McIntyre, calling the panel's conclusions "absurd."
Peter McGahan writing for The Economic Voice has said "Whether or not you believe in global warming or climate change is a separate argument, one which you might find very interesting, but this article will not cover that. However, a trip to iceagenow or climateaudit, and a few hours reading, coupled with the fact that no real improvements or investments by global governments in the essential infrastructure have taken place in the last six years, despite the need, will leave you much more balanced than you may currently be thinking."
The blog has been described by Ed Barnes as "one of the most vocal critics" of the IPCC.
Olive Heffernan wrote in Nature
it is "a blog that investigates the statistical methods used in climate science".
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
which was founded on 31 January 2005 by Steve Mcintyre
Stephen McIntyre
Stephen McIntyre is a Canadian mathematician, former minerals prospector, and semi-retired mining consultant who is best known as the founder and editor of Climate Audit, a blog devoted to the analysis and discussion of climate data...
.
The New York Times has called it "a popular skeptics’ blog".
The website has won the 2007 Best Science Blog award
The Weblog Awards (Wizbang)
The Weblog Awards, presented by Kevin Aylward's Wizbang LLC, were an annual blog award that have been presented since 2003. They were one of the largest blog awards, with winners determined through internet voting by the public. The Weblog Awards are covered by many major news organizations...
and was a runner up in the same category in 2008.
Founding
McIntyre started Climate Audit in January 2005. One reason McIntyre gave for starting the site was to provide a forum for discussions on his "audits" of climate science research. Another reason for starting the blog was for McIntyre to respond to what Fred PearceFred Pearce
Fred Pearce is an English author and journalist based in London. He has been described as one of Britain's finest science writers and has reported on environment, popular science and development issues from 64 countries over the past 20 years. He specializes in global environmental issues,...
described as attacks on his work by the blog RealClimate
RealClimate
RealClimate is a commentary site on climatology. The site's contributors are a group of climate scientists whose goal is to provide a quick response to developing stories and providing the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion is intended to be restricted to scientific...
. RealClimate was a blog started two months earlier by Michael E. Mann, Gavin Schmidt
Gavin Schmidt
Gavin A. Schmidt is a climatologist and climate modeler at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. He works on the variability of the ocean circulation and climate, using general circulation models . He has also worked on ways to reconcile paleo-data with models...
, Stefan Rahmstorf
Stefan Rahmstorf
Stefan Rahmstorf is a German oceanographer and climatologist. Since 2000, he has been a Professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University. He received his Ph.D. in oceanography from Victoria University of Wellington...
, and other climate scientists.
Dr Judith Curry
Judith Curry
Judith A. Curry is an American climatologist and chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests include hurricanes, remote sensing, atmospheric modeling, polar climates, air-sea interactions, and the use of unmanned aerial...
of the Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
has said "McIntyre started the blog climateaudit.org so that he could defend himself against claims being made at the blog Realclimate
RealClimate
RealClimate is a commentary site on climatology. The site's contributors are a group of climate scientists whose goal is to provide a quick response to developing stories and providing the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion is intended to be restricted to scientific...
with regards to his critique of the “hockey stick” since he was unable to post his comments there". She has also referred to this site as one of several "Climate Auditor" websites.
Climatic Research Unit email controversy
The site was one of the first to receive word of the e-mails which had been leaked from the University of East AngliaUniversity of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
with Jonathan Leake of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
writing, "The storm began with just four cryptic words. 'A miracle has happened,' announced a contributor to Climate Audit, a website devoted to criticising the science of climate change." Louise Gray wrote in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, "Climate Audit was one of the first to post up the stolen emails from the University of East Anglia that led to the 'climategate' scandal". Bloomberg
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
said of the controversy, "Web sites and blogs including the Climate Audit Mirror Site have carried copies of e-mails, correspondence between climatologists and commentary. In one e-mail cited widely on blogs including Climate Audit, Phil Jones writes about completing “Mike’s nature trick of adding in the real temps” in order to hide the decline." According to Science Magazine, Jones wrote e-mails stating that he convinced Freedom of Information Act officers to not release data to climate skeptics because Jones believed that they planned to harm the UAE or setback climate science. "Think I've managed to persuade UEA to ignore all further FOIA requests if the people have anything to do with Climate Audit," Jones wrote. The House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee largely vindicated the scientists involved in the scandal, but left consideration of the quality of the science and the conduct of the research to committees chaired by Lord Oxburgh and Sir Muir Russell. McIntyre, who also worked at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body which provides comprehensive assessments of current scientific, technical and socio-economic information worldwide about the risk of climate change caused by human activity, its potential environmental and...
(IPCC) and submitted notes to the committee for its investigation, wrote a lengthy rebuttal of the decision to vindicate the scientists on the blog. "Contrary to the University of East Anglia
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
's claims, there is no valid statistical procedure supporting the substitution of tree ring proxy," said McIntyre, calling the panel's conclusions "absurd."
Reception
Patrick J. Michaels, a former contributor to the IPCC, named Climate Audit as part of "a new “parallel universe” of emerging online publications, manned by serious scientists critical of world governments approach to climate change. “A parallel universe is assembling itself parallel to the IPCC. This universe has become very technical -- very proficient at taking apart the U.N.’s findings."Peter McGahan writing for The Economic Voice has said "Whether or not you believe in global warming or climate change is a separate argument, one which you might find very interesting, but this article will not cover that. However, a trip to iceagenow or climateaudit, and a few hours reading, coupled with the fact that no real improvements or investments by global governments in the essential infrastructure have taken place in the last six years, despite the need, will leave you much more balanced than you may currently be thinking."
The blog has been described by Ed Barnes as "one of the most vocal critics" of the IPCC.
Olive Heffernan wrote in Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
it is "a blog that investigates the statistical methods used in climate science".
See also
- Global warming controversyGlobal warming controversyGlobal warming controversy refers to a variety of disputes, significantly more pronounced in the popular media than in the scientific literature, regarding the nature, causes, and consequences of global warming...
- Hockey stick controversyHockey stick controversyThe hockey stick controversy refers to debates over the technical correctness and implications for global warming of graphs showing reconstructed estimates of the temperature record of the past 1000 years...
- The Hockey Stick IllusionThe Hockey Stick IllusionThe Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science is a book written by Andrew Montford and published by Stacey International in 2010...
- Tree ring