It was only a matter of time before the Wall Street Journal took up Rep. Lamar Smith's crusade against climate scientists.
On Tuesday, the Journal published a column by consummate denier Holman Jenkins Jr. that is rather transparent in its aim. In the article, titled, "The Next Climate Scandal?," Jenkins makes predictable claims about how "NOAA's sleight of hand [in adjusting climate data] seems designed precisely to conceal the alleged ‘pause.'” He alsoincidentally defends NOAA by pointing out that they "will surely be prepared to justify each and every tweak,” although he is likely trying to insinuate something more dangerous than the actual scientific justifications that NOAA provides for data adjustments.
He does not go so far, however, as to tell the truth, which is that NOAA already explained everything to Smith's committee. NOAA's data and methods regarding their treatment of global temperature data is already public. So not only is Smith making baseless requests for information, he's asking NOAA to provide information that's already available online! (This excludes the researchers' emails, which Smith also requested.)
The American Meteorlogical Society, unlike the WSJ, has sent Smith a stern letter making it clear that "the advancement of science depends on investigators having the freedom to carry out research objectively and without the fear of threats or intimidation whether or not their results are expedient or popular."
To get back to the title, it's clear this is an attempt on the part of deniers to “Climategate" the Paris talks by manufacturing a scandal to create controversy where none exists. Hopefully NOAA will point to the 9 climategate exonerations, or the successful defense posed by Dr. Michael Mann when biased actorssought his emails. Because it seems nothing has changed since 2011, when the Washington Post editorial board called this behavior what it is: harassing climate-change researchers.
Media Matters has a piece on Jenkins' claims, which he also stated in a recent WSJ video, as well as a round-up of other conservative press coverage and rebuttals.
With only a few weeks left until Paris, we shouldn't expect any pause or hiatus in these unfounded attacks.
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