Scientists did not distort climate data, U.S. inquiry finds

LESLIE KAUFMAN
International Herald Tribune
02-26-2011
Scientists did not distort climate data, U.S. inquiry finds
Byline: LESLIE KAUFMAN
Type: News

Climate change skeptics had contended that correspondence leaked in 2009 showed that N.O.A.A. scientists were manipulating or withholding information to advance the theory of global warming.

An inquiry by the U.S. government has found no evidence that scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration manipulated climate data to buttress evidence in support of global warming.
The inquiry by the Commerce Department's inspector general focused on e-mail messages among climate scientists that were stolen and circulated on the Internet in late 2009. Some of the e-mail involved scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or N.O.A.A., which is part of the Commerce Department.

Climate change skeptics contended that the correspondence showed that scientists were manipulating or withholding information to advance the theory that Earth is warming as a result of human activity.

In a report dated Feb. 18 and circulated by the Obama administration on Thursday, the inspector general said, "We did not find any evidence that N.O.A.A. inappropriately manipulated data."

Nor did it find evidence that Jane Lubchenco, the agency's top official, testified inaccurately to Congress in stating that the correspondence did not undermine climate science, the report said.

The finding came at a critical moment for the agency as some newly empowered Republican members of the House of Representatives seek to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency's plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, often contending that the science underpinning global warming is flawed. N.O.A.A. is the federal agency tasked with monitoring climate data.

The inquiry into N.O.A.A.'s conduct was requested last May by Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, who has challenged the science underlying human-induced climate change. Mr. Inhofe was acting in response to the controversy over the e-mail messages, which were stolen from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England, a major hub of climate research.

Mr. Inhofe asked the inspector general of the Commerce Department to investigate how N.O.A.A. scientists responded internally to the leaked e-mail. Of 1,073 messages, 289 were exchanges with N.O.A.A. scientists.

The inspector general reviewed the 1,073 e-mails, and interviewed Dr. Lubchenco and staff members about their exchanges.

The report did not find scientific misconduct. It did, however, challenge the agency over its handling of some Freedom of Information Act requests in 2007. And it noted the inappropriateness of an e-mail message that passed between two N.O.A.A. scientists that contained a collage cartoon depicting Mr. Inhofe and five other climate skeptics marooned on a melting iceberg.

Copyright International Herald Tribune Feb 26, 2011