Fact brief - Were scientists caught falsifying data in the hacked emails incident dubbed 'climategate'?

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Were scientists caught falsifying data in the hacked emails incident dubbed 'climategate'?

Nine separate investigations found that climate scientists involved in the “climategate” controversy did not falsify data.

In 2009, the Climatic Research Unit’s servers were hacked. One scientist was reported as saying that he “completed Mike’s nature trick” to “hide the decline” in an email. The “trick” in question simply refers to combining instrumental temperature data and tree ring data.

“Hide the decline” referred not to a temperature decline, but a decline in the reliability of some tree rings as a temperature proxy. This had become an issue in data starting from the year 1960. Also known as the "divergence problem," it had been discussed in the scientific literature since the mid 1990s — 15 years before "climategate."

Steve Mosher, who fueled the conspiracy theory, has since issued a public apology, acknowledging that the scientists’ work was accurate.

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Sources

Skeptical Science List of 'climategate' investigations
Guardian The five key leaked emails from UEA's Climatic Research Unit
NASA Vital Signs - limate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet
BBC COP26: Former sceptic apologises for role in Climategate

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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact — a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all of our published fact briefs here.

Posted by John Mason on Saturday, 13 July, 2024

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