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Learning from Climategate Andy Rossmeissl
New st ategies for a skeptical world Brighter Planet

3. Science as a se ice
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slide 2
=> { … carbon: { object: { value: 1234.5, units: “kg” } … } … }

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6. Report of the International Panel set up by the University of East Anglia to
examine the research of the Climatic Research Unit.
Introduction
1. The Panel was set up by the University in consultation with the Royal Society
to assess the integrity of the research published by the Climatic Research Unit
in the light of various external assertions. The Unit is a very small academic
entity within the School of Environmental Sciences. It has three full time and
one part time academic staff members and about a dozen research associates,
PhD students and support staff. The essence of the criticism that the Panel was
asked to address was that climatic data had been dishonestly selected,
manipulated and/or presented to arrive at pre-determined conclusions that
were not compatible with a fair interpretation of the original data. The
members of the Panel are listed in Appendix A at the end of this report.
The Indepen
dent
2. The Panel was not concerned with the question of whether the conclusions of
the published research were correct. Rather it was asked to come to a view on
mons
House of Com
the integrity of the Unit’s research and whether as far as could be determined
echnology
the conclusions represented an honest and scientifically justified interpretation
Climate Chan
ge
of the data. The Panel worked by examining representative publications by
Science and T
members of the Unit and subsequently by making two visits to the University
and interviewing and questioning members of the Unit. Not all the panel were
Committee
present on both occasions but two members were present on both occasions to
E -mail s Revi
ew
maintain continuity. About fifteen person/days were spent at the University
discussing the Unit’s work.
e of
The disclosur
3. The eleven representative publications that the Panel considered in detail are July 2010
m the
listed in Appendix B. The papers cover a period of more than twenty years and
mate data fro Unit
were selected on the advice of the Royal Society. All had been published in
cli international scientific journals and had been through a process of peer review.
arch
slide 5
CRU agreed that they were a fair sample of the work of the Unit. The Panel
Climatic Rese
was also free to ask for any other material that it wished and did so.
Individuals on the panel asked for and reviewed other CRU research materials.
sity of
at the Univer
4. The Panel’s work began with a detailed reading of the published work. Every
paper was read by a minimum of three Panel members at least one of whom Chair : Sir Muir
Russell
East Anglia
was familiar with the general area to which the paper related. At least one of
the other two was a generalist with no special climate science expertise but
with experience of some of the general techniques and methods employed in
the work. Most of the members of the Panel read all the publications. The Review team
10 :
ession 2009–
publications provided a platform from which to gain a deeper understanding of
of S Professor Ge
Eighth Report
the Unit’s research and enabled the Panel to probe particular questions in more
detail. o rey Boulto
Professor Pete n
inutes
r Clarke
her with formal m David Eyton
Report, toget
Professor Jam
e House of Co
mmons es Norton
Ordered by th 2010
24 March
to be printed
1
HC 387-I
31 March 2010
Published on mmons
th e House of Co
by authority of Limited
Sta tionery O ce
London: The £0.00

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9. Extremely sure Very sure Somewhat sure Not at all sure
75
3
17 3
21
26
20 slide 8 1
25 1 7
19 23
14 4 6
3
0 3 5
2008 2010 2008 2010 2008 2010
Global Warming Is Don't Know Global Warming Is Not
Happening Happening
Yale study

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11. Trust is sca
slide 10

12. Client input Brighter Planet
CM platform
Computations Reference data
slide 11
Impact

13. POST http://impact.brighterplanet.com/automobile_trips.json
{ make: “Nissaaan”, model: “Ultima” }
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20. Science is unce tain.
Trust isslide 18tainer.
unce

21. Trustansparency
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BRIGHTER
PLANET