Brit Press: Phil Jones, climate man in email scandal, quits; and Popular Mechanics explains what to make of the whole mess
Phil Jones, the prominent climate scientist at the Univeristy of East Anglia, has stepped down as head of its noted Climatic Research Unit while the theft and contents of that big cache of emails are under investigation. As Jones was author of some of the messages that don’t seem to reveal the best side of the scientific temperament, this may have been an inevitable move on his part.
The Brit press is of course all over this. For a rather careful, measured account, start at The Guardian with Alok Jha‘s deployment of a classic news story structure: The new part, followed by plenty of reminder what this is all about, and closing with opinions mainly from the science establishment that the affair should not be permitted to shake the consensus on climate change’s reality. Good luck with that.
At the Daily Mail, David Derbyshire presents a slightly more lathered version, but also provides readers with opinions from reputable sources who feel the affair ought to have (again, good luck with that) no impact on the overall solidity of scientific consensus on climate change. This piece was written just before the resignation became official.
Derbyshire however does some selective quoting of his own, from another commentary that ran a week ago in The Guardian under the byline of enviro writer George Monbiot. He did say that there is no way to take the odor of ethical shenanigans off some of the emails. But, unquoted (for length among other things, likely) at the Mail is the greater part of Monbiot’s essay: an imagined and clever disclosure, via the “email I’d need to see,” of what kind of grand conspiracy it would actually take to have concocted a phony global warming scare. It’s a little over the top but well worth the reading.
A few other stories:
- Times (UK) Abhinav Ramnarayan: Climate-change scientist Phil Jones steps down in e-mail row inquiry ;
- Bloomberg – Jim Efstathious, Alex Morales: UK Climate Scientist Steps Down After E-Mail flap; Skeptics will be delighted to see which two authorities on climate change (not) are quoted first in this account. The tail end of the piece provides some of that balance we read about so much.
- Washington Post – Juliet Eilperin: Scientist steps down during e-mail probe ;
- AP – Raphael G. Satter: Climate-unit chief steps aside amid probe ;
Related News and Opinion:
- Popular Mechanics – Peter Keleman : What East Anglia’s E-mails Really Tell Us About Climate Change ; An essay, by a Columbia U. geochemist, on scientific process and why these emails are scandalous – but don’t begin to dent the science of global warming.
- Arizona Daily Star – Tony Davis: UA prof told to safeguard questioned climate files ;
- …and just to sample the full spectrum: San Francisco Examiner – Thomas McAdam (this is not a regular newspaper, but a compilation of freelance opinins): Climategate: The chickens are coming home to roost. ‘
- Charlie Petit
February 19th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
[...] of East Anglia’s Climate Reach Unit (whose decision to step down temporarily has drawn fairly wide coverage), that he had used a “trick” to hide a decline in temperatures. This has probably been the most [...]