This statement was released by Penn State here. Oddly, while mentioning the NAS report, there is no mention of the Congressional commissioned Wegman report, which you can see here full report (PDF). Or for a quick read the fact-sheet (PDF).
University Reviewing Recent Reports on Climate Information
Professor Michael Mann is a highly regarded member of the Penn State faculty conducting research on climate change. Professor Mann’s research papers have been published in well respected peer-reviewed scientific journals.
In November 2005, Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) requested that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) convene a panel of independent experts to investigate Professor Mann’s seminal 1999 reconstruction of the global surface temperature over the past 1,000 years. The resulting 2006 report of the NAS panel (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11676) concluded that Mann’s results were sound and has been subsequently supported by an array of evidence that includes additional large-scale surface temperature reconstructions.
In recent days a lengthy file of emails has been made public. Some of the questions raised through those emails may have been addressed already by the NAS investigation but others may not have been considered. The University is looking into this matter further, following a well defined policy used in such cases. No public discussion of the matter will occur while the University is reviewing the concerns that have been raised.
h/t Joe D’Aleo
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RE: polistra (12:54:41) :
“The left/right discussion in this topic is missing one point. AGW began with leftist academics, but its main money source is Wall Street. The Carbon Credit Exchange was meant to be the next big bubble (especially appropriate term here) and many giant corporations see cap-n-trade as an excellent way to make life harder for small business. And the latter impulse is what drives Congress more than any ideology.”
You are right, this is not a left/right issue as left/right is commonly defined. The progressive movement in the US was not, as is often portrayed, an attempt to exert government control over business, but rather an attempt by big business to squelch competition. The leftist historian Gabriel Kolko wrote about this in his book “The Triumph of Conservatism: A reinterpretation of American History 1900 – 1916”. The current attempts to use climate science to control business is just more of the same. Big business wants to control the “rules of the game” to further their interests. A relevant quote from Kolko demonstrates the point:
“Progressivism was initially a movement for the political rationalization of business and industrial conditions, a movement that operated on the assumption that the general welfare of the community could be best served by satisfying the concrete needs of business. But the regulation itself was invariably controlled by leaders of the regulated industry, and directed toward ends they deemed acceptable or desirable. In part this came about because the regulatory movements were usually initiated by the dominant businesses to be regulated, but it also resulted from the nearly universal belief among political leaders in the basic justice of private property relations as they essentially existed, a belief that set the ultimate limits on the leaders’ possible actions. ”
“It is business control over politics (and by “business” I mean the major economic interests) rather than political regulation of the economy that is the significant phenomenon of the Progressive Era. Such domination was direct and indirect, but significant only insofar as it provided means for achieving a greater end-political capitalism. Political capitalism is the utilization of political outlets to attain conditions of stability, predictability, and security—to attain rationalization –in the economy. Stability is the elimination of internecine competition and erratic fluctuations in the economy. Predictability is the ability, on the basis of politically stabilized and secured means, to plan future economic action on the basis of fairly calculable expectations. By security I mean protection from the political attacks latent in any formally democratic political structure. I do not give to rationalization its frequent definition as the improvement of efficiency, output, or internal organization of a company; I mean by the term, rather. the organization of the economy and the larger political and social spheres in a manner that will allow corporations to function in a predictable and secure environment permitting reasonable profits over the long run.”
Will PSU ask Mann to hand over any e-mails etc. he’s written that might indicate nefarious activities similar to the ones being investigated? If they do, wow! If they don’t, why didn’t they?
Any PSU graduates writing to them should suggest that his e-mails be examined.
John (13:11:02) :
I, for one, am not in favor of seeing Dr. Mann or anyone else “thrown to the wolves”. It may well be that’s what will happen, but he, too, deserves his day in court. It will take quite some time to analyze the archive and put it into context…. and there may well yet be a second archive waiting to be released… but as damning as the evidence looks now, tossing Mann, Jones or anyone else out in hopes of shutting down the scandal would be just as reprehensible as what they are accused of… more so, in fact, since a thorough re-assessment of the science and the politics is clearly called for. If anything, we should be calling for more data collection.
As far as this Left-Right, Liberal-Conservative dichotomy goes, maybe we need to think in other terms. Karl Marx in the 19th century and the Frankfurt School in the 20th developed the idea of “false consciousness”… that people were deceived into opposing other groups or classes and prevented from recognizing the commonality of interests that they shared. It might not be too far a stretch to suggest that, as C. Wright Mills put it, there is a “power elite” – one that is concerned with regularizing civic life and maintaining their own position.
Gavin is playing the “Ivory Tower” card.
It is all about the money. They have to produce something to keep the flow of tax money coming.
@ur momisugly PSU-EMS-Alum (11:52:57) : So, yes, the alumni are the key because we can effect rapid change. Furthermore, we have already started discussing amongst ourselves what needs to be done.
Thank you. I’ve written twice to Spanier first asking for Mann’s resignation, then to correct the university’s statement regarding NAS and their critique of the Hockey Stick. I’m a Pitt grad, though, so nothing I say will make any difference although it did make me feel better. I’m glad to hear that PSU alum are on top of this and I hope you get him ousted.
@ur momisuglyJohn Whitman: John Whitman (12:44:45) : Since Penn State is a state of Pennsylvania institution, it would be a appropriate for those citizens of Pennsylvania to immediately contact their state gov reps.
I’ve already done that. I have also written to Ed Rendell. As a taxpayer in PA, I don’t another red cent to fund this man’s research. He should be in prison for misuse of funds.
If PSU is serious about a credible investigation they should already have his office computers, and any others upon which e-mails and data might be stored, under lock and key until complete backups can be made of all data, e-mail traffic, etc. Otherwise if the lights are on late in Mann’s office tonight we can only imagine him feverishly at his keyboard hitting the delete key and running scrubber software.
rbateman (11:02:48): I think if they were actually serious about investigating Michael Mann, they would suspend him pending investigation.
So as to prevent him from deleting all his emails and other files? Probably too late for that — most likely they’re already long gone. Unless they reside on the server! Oh dear! And Congress wants to see them, too!
Imagine the sweating and twitching going on right now in the dark underbelly of “climate science”.
I know it’s wrong to indulge in Schadenfreude, but it is delicious nonetheless.
I’ve long thought about calling Penn State and voicing my concern over Mann’s 1st hockey stick. I wonder if now is the time to call and complain about him…
mkurbo (11:48:50) :
I think the point is that the MSM have swallowed the AGW story as a long standing cataclysm story which generates lots of headlines, lots of sales, lots of schmoozing at climate conferences.
While I accept that it has been pre-dominantly a left-wing (extreme left-wing obsession) and a lot of recognizeably socialist policies designed to derail the capitalist systems of the West, by no means do all left-wingers agree with it. I think that AJ Abrams has been very brave and standing up and calling “BS!” on this apocalyptic fever.
People have been frightened to death by “climate chaos” and have filled the coffers of environmental groups like Greenpeace, the WWF and the Sierra Club to the tune of billions of dollars.
As Charles Mackay wrote in 1841: “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
That’s what’s happening. We live in interesting times.
I wrote to Easterling and Spanier last week asking them to get out in front of this, that it is the biggest story in science in the past 15 years, and that the world is watching the response of my university. And this statement 3 days late is the best they can do? I wrote them again and told them it looks like a criminal investigation mat be required too. Let’s go State!
I also think it’s suspicious that they rolled out the latest study the day after the SHTF. I emailed the PIO lady and told her that if they just thought we were all too stupid to care they were wrong.
I hope there is someone taking the role of “prosecutor” in this investigation; otherwise the investigators, not being well-versed in the subject, could be taken in by the defendant’s glib excuses, as the FOI officers at EAU were.
@ur momisugly MIke D: So as to prevent him from deleting all his emails and other files? Probably too late for that — most likely they’re already long gone. Unless they reside on the server! Oh dear! And Congress wants to see them, too!
I’d bet a year’s salary they’re on a server somewhere. I know where I work, every single file is stored on a central server in addition to your laptop, desktop, whatever, The server is then backed up by magnetic tape. Mann probably has personal copies of his stuff, too.
The truth is out there. Someone, somewhere, has that information.
@ur momisugly Mark (15:16:58) : I’ve long thought about calling Penn State and voicing my concern over Mann’s 1st hockey stick. I wonder if now is the time to call and complain about him…
Department: EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND PROVOSTS OF UNIVERSITY
URL: http://www.psu.edu/provost/
Address: 201 OLD MAIN
Telephone Number: +1 814 865 2505
Fax Number: +1 814 863 8583
Administrative Area: PRESIDENTS OFFICE
The president’s email address is president@ur momisuglypsu.edu
“No public discussion of the matter will occur while the University is reviewing the concerns that have been raised”.
This means bugger off and stick your nose in other Mann’s business.
They will stall their finish their investigations when Copenhagen has finished with a signed contract, otherwise they will stall to after the Mexico Meeting.
They won’t kick in their own windows voluntarily.
About the left/right discussions:
The left green propaganda machine is doing the field work, they brainwash the masses, organize demonstrations, create the smoke curtains but big capital is pulling the strings.
AJ –
I went for a walk on the beach and thought about it and I will have to respectfully disagree with you. Your points are pure in nature and thoughtful, but that’s not really the state of reality that we have all lived in this last decade plus…
This AGW movement was born of the far left – do you disagree ? It was driven into a full blown monster by the mainstream left over the last twenty years. To make it strictly a science/issue debate at this point would be just as disingenuous as their current position on Climategate of “nothing to see here, move along”. If you are suggesting that the movement was hijacked along the way by far left nut jobs (your term), then that is an issue for the left to deal within their own realm. If it was purely a science debate, would Gore and such be involved and why did we (skeptics) lose the global marketing war ?
You said; “If you want to get through to real democrats, don’t make it us versus them, it will only get their backs against the wall”. Well the Dems voted 211 out of 255 (83%) for Cap and Trade which is constructed on the cornerstone (foundation) of AGW. So if “real” Dems don’t feel that way, then they need to get impassioned and run those Dems that voted for AGW out of office. I would think it’s healthy to get their backs against the wall so they wake-up.
Here is my point and the real problem;
If you get politically correct and wash away the “left” roots of this movement, you are essentially manipulating the data. You might as well say the warm period did not exist. For the records (history) to be properly reviewed by generations to come, the warm period is important and so is labeling AGW as a leftist propaganda movement. Anything less is revisionist history and invites a repeat of the current situation.
I would not be on this website if my daughter had not come home one night from school and say “Daddy, why are we killing the polar bears with man-made global warming and will the planet be ok when I grow up ?” At that point I decided to get involved and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anybody “re-label” this movement as anything other than what it is – the spinning of natural warming/cooling cycles of the earth into a fairy tale of catastrophe climate alarmism to support a far left agenda and take advantage of people worldwide – do you see the end game of this movement differently AJ ?
I respect all of those who have put so much work into fighting this viral infection of a movement. Dr. Spencer has been kind enough to write me many times over the years as I battled Wikipedia and their bias on global warming. If they think we should “re-label” for the greater good, then I would begrudgingly agree, but I beg you all to think about the young minds that have been affected with this made-up malady (AGW) and ask yourself if we should not let the truth be reflected on how this came to be ???
BTW I think all these discussions are very healthy !
The cynic in me thinks that this “investigation” will conclude with a slap on the wrist for Mr. Mann. That way the reputation of the university will remain intact, and Mann’s career can continue on, but with one black spot in his file.
Admittedly, this cynicism exists because the entire climategate caper has been running on for years. It’s hard to see all these “researchers” – and the institutions to which they are related – ready to take any kind of fall.
Four or five careers may be ruined, but that will be followed by a big broom and an enormous effort to brush it under one very large rug.
You are all doing an astonishingly good job of managing all this information.
As a suggestion, a fascinating exercise would be to create a league table of which climate “scientists” are the authors of the most suspect work and of how many suspect papers and which institution is investigating/not investigating claims of fraud and deceit.
Expose the Universities and the institutions that are condoning this pseudo-science.
(As an added bonus highlighting which countries’ climate data has been compromisd by the suspect methodology e.g. do we know if Russian data is being published in a compromised manner too? would help a layman like myself get an overview of how much of the globe is being mis-represented and how.)
I’ve recently sent 2 letters (by e-mail) to my local broadsheet (newspaper) regarding some of the issues unfolding from Mr. McIntyres’ work and Climategate and they didn’t even acknowledge receipt of the letters. Conclusion – not important.
The MSM, apparantly, no longer investigates, they need stories served on a plate -with a dessert -and WUWT and CA are doing their work for them. So its up to us to keep writing to any and all agencies, government offices, local governmet or institution that is relying on the IPCC for guidance as to public and private future policy (so far my letters are to the PM, the Energy Minister and the Senate commitee for Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, I’m starting at the top and working down, its just as important to start at the bottom and work up, keep talking to friends and family and keep typing – if the last few weeks show anything it is that steady reasoned pressure does make a difference and it will get the ball rolling – keep promoting WUWT.
Copenhagen is coming.
@richard Britnell
Have you noticed the cone of silence over the MSM in Canada? The Globe & Mail, The Star (no surprise there), CTV and CBC (again no surprise there) with their lead stories on Tiger Woods, Toronto Humane Society and oh yeah, Copenhagen but wherever someone can post a comment, the forums are littered with Climategate news. The only media outlet running anything is the National Post and it has done so consistently from the start.
It would be interesting to see how tall this mountain of evidence for AGW would be once any journal article using the CRU, NOAA and GIS data along with Jones, Mann et al references is eliminated. Maybe a molehill? Perhaps this would a job for Naomi Oreskes, hehe.
Sorry, that should be @Nicholas Britnell.
I’m Richard. LOL
Again, how do you explain me? Pam
A pleasant surprise.
Actually, both left and right are on the same side of the tyranny spectrum. They merely disagree on WHAT should be forced on us via government.
This country will have grown up when we agree to disagree and allow the free market place of ideas to function.
“No public discussion of the matter will occur while the University is reviewing the concerns that have been raised”
Oh Yeah?
I wouldn’t make a bet on that if I were you Mr spokesman
Here’s Mann’s interview with the local newspaper…
http://www.centredaily.com/news/education/penn_state/story/1646329.html
Mann said that was an email sent to him, “and can in no way be taken to indicate approval of, let alone compliance with, the request. I did not delete any such email correspondences.”
Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/news/education/penn_state/story/1646329.html#ixzz0YDBfHoV7
The investigation will depend on how serious the University takes these issues.
If they take them seriously, there will be no problem finding enough evidence to put Mann away for good. If not, it is easy to assume the problem will go away eventually.
But don’t underestimate Mann’s persuasive ability. All the questionable research and math he has undertaken should have put him away long ago. Yet he is almost the star of the climate research community and seems to have the ability to persuade half the editorial board of a journal to resign on mass over what was actually a pretty good paper. He does seem to have some unusual although not altruistic talents.