Articles Tagged "Peter J. Havanac"

We recently posted in our "Reply to article" section Global warming alarmists can't stand the heat by Peter J. Havanac, Meteorologist., the following is a reply from Michael E. Mann!!

Here's the context surrounding a flawed 2003 research paper.

By MICHAEL E. MANN

In "Warming alarmists can't stand the heat" (July 26), the Star Tribune allowed Peter J. Havanac to do a grave disservice to its readers by making false statements about me and other climate scientists.

Havanac repeated false allegations (based on illegally hacked e-mails) of supposed scientific misconduct by scientists at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia (for example, the supposed destruction of e-mails) that have now been rejected as false by three separate investigations in the U.K. A similar investigation by my university has exonerated me of any of the wrongdoing alleged by climate-change deniers like Havanac. Unfortunately, these exonerations cannot stop individuals like Havanac from repeating the false allegations. Only the possession of decency can do that.

Havanac parroted the false claim that I sought to "undermine" a journal that "contradicted views held by ... global-warming alarmists." His claim was based on a thorough misrepresentation of a single example: a deeply flawed paper published in 2003 by the journal Climate Research. That paper, by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas, claimed that recent warming is not unusual.

The recent screed by James P. Lenfestey The truth: Still there, still inconvenient was a classic example of how global-warming alarmists spin a story via selective filtering of facts and ad hominem attacks on so-called "deniers."

Lenfestey repeats the usual call for an end to debate over the entire question of global warming, citing the "scientific consensus." He seizes on one quote from the report of a British panel investigating the practices of English climate scientists: "The rigor and honesty of the scientists is not in doubt." He fails to mention numerous less-supportive findings, such as "there was unhelpfulness in responding to requests and evidence that e-mails might have been deleted in order to make them unavailable should a subsequent request be made for them. University senior management should have accepted more responsibility for implementing the required processes for [Freedom of Information Act] ... compliance."

The review panel was not "independent," as claimed. Muir Russell, its chair, is a former vice chancellor at the University of Glasgow. This should be a red flag; professional groups generally have a poor record of self-policing the behavior of their members. One of the panel's four members, Prof. Geoffrey Boulton, was for 18 years on the faculty of East Anglia's School of Environmental Sciences, which included the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) -- the source of the controversial "Climategate" e-mails. In December 2009, Boulton signed a petition that declared that the global climate records scientists at East Anglia "adhere to the highest levels of professional integrity." So much for any claims that the panel was open-minded and objective.