The UK scientist at the center of the "Climategate" controversy over leaked e-mails has been cleared of hiding or manipulating data by a parliamentary committee.
But lawmakers who had been investigating the row over global warming science said in a report published Wednesday that climate scientists must publish all their raw data and methods to ensure the research is "irreproachable."
The Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia in eastern England has been under fire since last November when emails, which skeptics claimed showed scientists hiding and manipulating climate data, were allegedly hacked and leaked onto the Internet.
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The Commons report said the leaked emails suggested a "blunt refusal"
by Jones to share scientific data but its chairman Phil Willis said
there was no evidence that Jones hid or manipulated data to back up his
own science."The focus on Professor Jones and CRU has been
largely misplaced," the report said. "On the accusations relating to
Professor Jones's refusal to share raw data and computer codes, the
committee considers that his actions were in line with common practice
in the climate science community but that those practices need to
change."
Much of the controversy focused on one
particular e-mail that Jones sent relating to the preparation of a
figure for the WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate in
1999. He wrote: "I've just completed 'Mike's Nature trick' of adding in
the real temps to each series for the last 20 years … to hide the
decline."
But the Commons committee cleared him of malpractice
here too, concluding: "On the much cited phrases in the leaked e-mails
— "trick" and "hiding the decline" — the committee considers that they
were colloquial terms used in private e-mails and the balance of
evidence is that they were not part of a systematic attempt to mislead.
"Insofar as the Committee was able to consider accusations of
dishonesty against CRU, the Committee considers that there is no case to
answer."
via www.cnn.com
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