Guardian: The hockey stick temperature plot’s real history, proclaimed history, and its triumph today
The fracas over transparency of science at the University of East Anglias Climatic Research Unit, and at the IPCC in general, may have gotten stale in the US. In Britain it’s a hot topic yet. A good example is in the Guardian where environmental beat veteran Fred Pearce examines the tussle a decade ago over the “hockey stick” graph that Al Gore and the IPCC have highlighted showing a wiggly handle running roughly straight for the last millennium and a blade-like sharp rise up in the last half century or so.
His point is that, while most mainstream scientists insisted right along that the plot was right, behind the scenes a few such mainstream scientists were screaming that the medieval warm period 1000 years go, if one went by tree ring data, had temperatures about like those today. Thus, he argues with some merit that the IPCC and CRU were not as united as they tried to appear in defending this plot and its clear message that climate is amok.
So it’s a good revelation, perhaps, of misbehavior by the hockey stick’s defenders back then. But, while giving it perhaps too little stress in this account, Pearce also reports that the hockey stick stands triumphant today. The scientist who fought hardest against it back then has now come around, and objects no more, it says here. This is a rare story with nuance – a dangerous thing. The political and tactical maneuvers of the CRU’s leaders may have been flawed. But the scientific convictions that goaded their behavior seem to have been vindicated. How readers will assess it remains to be seen.
- Charlie Petit
