Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Krishna Gans / NotALotOfPeopleKnowThat; New boss appointed, immediately receives an email from an employee telling him what he is allowed to do. Employment terminated.
Top NOAA scientist is removed from his position after he asked new Trump-appointed staff to adhere to the agency’s integrity policy that bans changing research data to fit political agenda
- NOAA acting chief scientist Craig McLean was removed from his position in September
- McLean was forced to step down from his role after emailing new Trump appointees about the agency’s ethics policy, according to a NYT report
- The NOAA scientific integrity policy prohibits fabrication, falsification, or the manipulation of research data to fit a political agenda
- McLean’s email drew a sharp response from Erik Noble, the agency’s new Trump-appointed chief of staff
- Noble the following morning informed McLean he would no longer serve as the agency’s acting chief scientist
- He was replaced by Dr Ryan Maue, a climate change critic and former researcher for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank
By KAREN RUIZ FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 01:35 AEDT, 29 October 2020 | UPDATED: 23:00 AEDT, 29 October 2020
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s top scientist has been removed from his position after he asked new Trump-appointed staff to acknowledge the agency’s scientific integrity policy, according to a new report.
Craig McLean, the agency’s acting chief scientist, was dismissed from his role last month shortly after sending an email to the new political appointees, including former White House adviser Erik Noble, the New York Times reported.
McLean had reportedly asked them to respect the NOAA’s scientific integrity policy which prohibits fabrication, falsification and manipulation of research data driven to fit a political agenda.
…
Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8888735/Trump-administration-fires-NOAA-scientist.html
NotALotOfPeopleKnowThat points out that, by their own now AWOL published numbers (see top of page), NOAA’s temperature records have been subject to some intriguing and substantial hockey stick shaped data manipulations over the years, a practice which apparently continued on Craig McLean’s watch.
Update (EW): Just to clarify, McClean’s employment as chief scientist was terminated, as far as I know he still works for NOAA.
Insufficient data to comment.
Great to hear that Dr Maue has a GS-14/15 level job and the climate scammers embedded deep inside NOAA/NCDC should be worried. They can only hope Trump loses to Dementia Joe and the Marixists. Otherwise, it’s climate scam game-over.
So NOAA has a policy in place to ban fudging numbers and it has been fudging numbers for years?
Great alibi.. “We don’t fudge no numbers because we have a policy in place to prohibit fudging numbers.” Classic.
Excellent!
So was he asking these new employees to acknowledge a policy that he was nor following? Or is the implication that the new employees are manipulating data?
Projection. Typical. Ever so slowly the tide is turning and the deep states top operatives being taken out. This is a part of the reason why they are so afraid of a Trump win. Word is Trump is really going to start to clean house after his reelection. He knows the lay of the land much better now and as after winning a 2nd term there is little to stop him.
So prepare to hear stuck pigs screaming night and day for four solid years.
Let’s hope transparent explanations for any adjustments or homogenization of raw data is forthcoming.
Great first impression Numbnuts.
“Prohibits fabrication, falsification and manipulation of research data..”
Headlines quoted clash.
The problem has been is that the G’ment climate agencies have been altering the raw data.
For political reasons.
This why we need a Free Press, First Amendment and amnesty for whistle-blowers.
Eric,
The heading is misleading as well as the news story. McLean was not fired. He is a former NOAA Corps officer and now as a civilian, one of the Assistant Administrators that run NOAA’s main offices. He oversees the Office of Ocean and Atmospheric Research, a position in which he has done an outstanding job. For many years. He was asked not long ago to also serve as the Acting Chief Scientist. In that role, he sent that email that should have been responded to with just a “Thanks for the information!” There was no demand to adhere to any agenda. It was just a heads up of the agency’s science integrity policy.
In this case, Noble comes across as a petty, thin-skinned, political appointee that has no place in a government agency. Removing him from an acting position is really a meaningless gesture which McLean more than likely welcomed. Now he can go back to doing his real job.
NOAA acting chief scientist Craig McLean is saddened by the fact that all that data manipulation he oversaw is going away. Hurts.
Dr Maue is a great choice, solid data guy.
Is there a way of unwinding the alterations to the datasets to better reflect reality, or are the datasets forever corrupted with their past politically-motivated manipulation?
The guy sent his boss an email warning him not to falsify data. So, he was accusing the boss of even thinking about falsifying data. What an insult. In fact, it’s insubordination and sufficient grounds for immediate dismissal.
Background on McLean, BA in Zoology to Lawyer to NOAA’s top scientist under the Obama Admin. So who is the political appointee here?
His bio:
Craig N. McLean was named January 21, 2015, to head the office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He’s responsible for the agency’s research laboratories, climate program, National Sea Grant, and ocean exploration.
McLean was born August 21, 1957, and grew up on the Passaic River in Rutherford, New Jersey, at a time when the Passaic was too polluted to swim in. He began taking diving lessons at the age of 14 and soon performed decompression diving in order to explore deep-ocean shipwrecks. He worked on dive boats on weekends and when one client filmed the dumping of sewage, McLean took an underwater camera and recorded a sewage barge as it dumped a load on top of him.
He earned a B.A. degree in Zoology in 1979 from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. While at Rutgers, he gained his first experience with the NOAA, sailing on a ship that was investigating sludge dumping and its effect on public health.
After college, McLean worked for a diving company for two years and helped create a nonprofit marine education program for urban students. He then joined the NOAA Commissioned Corps. He began what was to become his almost 25-year association with the Corps as a deck officer and diving officer on a hydrographic survey ship, mapping nautical charts. He then worked at the National Marine Fisheries Service, specializing in developing sustainable fish harvesting strategies. He was executive officer on the Albatross and captain of the NOAA’s largest fisheries ship, the 225-foot Gordon Gunter. He was also deputy director of the National Marine Sanctuaries Program.
McLean returned school to become a lawyer, earning his Juris Doctor from the Quinnipiac College School of Law in Hamden, Connecticut, and did additional studying at George Washington University, the University of Maryland, and Georgetown University Law Center.
As an attorney, McLean practiced marine resource law for NOAA, and provided legal advice in the NOAA General Counsel’s office. He prosecuted violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. He was also the lawyer and deputy for the National Marine Sanctuary System.
In 2001, McLean was chosen to be the founding director of the NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration. In 2003 and 2004, he directed NOAA expeditions to study the sunken remains of the R.S.S. Titanic.
In 2006, McLean was named deputy assistant administrator for programs and administration of NOAA’s OAR. He subsequently served in NOAA as executive officer of the National Ocean Service. Beginning in April 2010, McLean was OAR’s acting assistant administrator.
McLean was forced to step down from his role after emailing new Trump appointees about the agency’s ethics policy, according to a NYT report
…
intriguing and substantial hockey stick shaped data manipulations over the years, a practice which apparently continued on Craig McLean’s watch
Follow my religion… So, McLean is a bigot, probably Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic, politically congruent. Here’s to mitigating progress.
A 0.75 degree adjustment upward of the temperature record above the raw data is more than a fudge or even adjustment. It is a hockey stick sized fabrication intended to keep the whole wonky show on the road..
McLean subscribes to diversity dogma (i.e. color judgment and exclusion), and as a diversitist, he colored people following his ideological bent, notably in the manner of a Rainbow spectrum, exclusive of black, brown, and taking gay pride in the shredded remains of white. This is a progressive condition in the workplace, in our society, which cannot be tolerated, let alone normalized.
Not about the e-mail. In September, McLean complained that he didn’t like a press release:
“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting chief scientist said in an email to colleagues Sunday that he is investigating whether the agency’s response to President Trump’s Hurricane Dorian tweets constituted a violation of NOAA policies and ethics. Also on Monday, the director of the National Weather Service broke with NOAA leadership over its handling of Trump’s Dorian tweets and statements.”
…
“As a result, McLean told his staff that “I am pursuing the potential violations of our NOAA Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity.””
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/09/09/noaas-chief-scientist-will-investigate-why-agency-backed-trump-over-its-experts-dorian-email-shows/
So, a non-scientist, appointed bureaucrat criticised the agency’s actions by other officials above his pay grade, kicked off an even greater public controversy, and is replaced in position (not a job loss, but a loss of status that could have caused his resignation) by someone which a degree, with whom McLean (and the author’s editor) doesn’t agree with on policy. Just another day in the swamp.
A political bureaucrat isn’t entitled to both his public facing position and a vociferous contrary ( to the prevailing wind ) opinion. Sorry. Maybe if he was a real scientist…
“…according to a NYT report…”
There’s the problem.
In recent correspondence with Environment Canada regarding their criteria for Heat vs Cold alerts, the responder indicated in the exchange that “Globally, heat causes more deaths than cold.”. Since this contradicted what I had been told by other sources, I went looking for a source and found it in a paper that described the differences between NOAA indicating heat caused more deaths and the CDC indicating that cold caused more deaths. The two being at exact odds with each other. The paper pointed to the different databases used and criteria used in each. The NOAA seemed to use a source that included newspaper stories in its data collection. I also saw the Lancets publication of a study of 13 countries and over 74 million deaths which also came to the “cold causes more deaths”..That was my first indication that the NOAA is probably pushing an agenda.
Nowhere was it stated that employees couldn’t REMOVE politically based mal-adjustments by previous AGW zealots.
What puzzles me is that according to the CV quoted by Joel O’Bryan, McLean had experience as a deck officer /cum diving officer, but apparently gained no marine qualifications enabling him to serve as Master of a ship. Perhaps the NOAA is exempt from the normal requirements of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW)?
“points out that, by their own now AWOL published numbers (see top of page), NOAA’s temperature records have been subject to some intriguing and substantial hockey stick shaped data manipulations over the years, a practice which apparently continued on Craig McLean’s watch.”
1. That is from one of the ancient versions of USHCN.
2. the methods used to make those adjustments are no longer used, replaced ages ago
3. USHCN is not used in global climate records ( since 2014 )
4. USHCN is not an official record anymore.
Jesus you guys are bad skeptics