Advertisement

Climate-change scientists in e-mail scandal cleared again

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

An independent panel has determined that scientists accused of improprieties in their research into climate change conducted their studies according to high academic standards but failed to respond openly to criticism.

The so-called Climategate scandal involving researchers at Britain’s University of East Anglia erupted on the eve of an international global-warming conference in Copenhagen last December. Skeptics of human-caused climate change used e-mails hacked from a server for the university to allege that researchers were suppressing data about global warming or slanting it to support their conclusions.

Advertisement

Los Angeles Times London bureau chief Henry Chu writes:

But an outside review commissioned by the university rejected those claims Wednesday. The report said that, despite some injudicious comments about skeptics, the scientists’ “honesty and rigor” were “not in doubt.” It also dismissed allegations of data-tampering, saying there was no “evidence of behavior that might undermine the conclusions” of man-made climate change.

The report also chastised the researchers: “There has been a consistent pattern of failing to display the proper degree of openness” on the part of the scientists and university, it said.

The findings echo the conclusions of two previous inquiries by Parliament and a university-sponsored panel.

Read more here.

Advertisement