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When NASA Scientists Attack
Written by Tom Fitton
Friday, 15 January 2010 20:56

It has not been a good month for the global warming crowd.

A few weeks ago, I told you about the "Climategate" scandal, where
thousands of emails and documents, hacked from a prominent climate
research center, painted global warming scientists in a most
unfavorable light. The emails provided hard evidence that scientists
pushing the global warming agenda conspired to squash the dissenting
opinions of rival scientists, going so far as to try to exclude
contrary views from important scientific publications.

Well this week, Judicial Watch released its own set of emails and
documents obtained from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies
(GISS). And once again, global warming scientists do not come off
well.


This particular set of documents relates to a controversy that erupted
in 2007 when Canadian blogger Stephen McIntyre exposed an error in
NASA's handling of raw temperature data from 2000-2006 that
exaggerated the reported rise in temperature readings in the United
States. What happened when NASA corrected the error? The new data
apparently caused a reshuffling of NASA's rankings for the hottest
years on record in the United States, with 1934 replacing 1998 at the
top of the list. (Kind of makes it harder to argue the planet is
getting warmer when the hottest year on record in the US was 75 years
ago.)

These new documents, which our intrepid investigators obtained through
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), include internal Goddard
Institute emails detailing attempts by NASA scientists to deal with
the media firestorm resulting from the controversy. Of particular
interest are emails involving GISS head James Hansen. In one exchange,
for example, Hansen tells a reporter from Bloomberg that NASA had not
previously published rankings with 1998 atop the list as the hottest
year on record in the 20th century.

Email from Demian McLean, Bloomberg to Jim Hansen, August 14, 2007:
"The U.S. figures showed 1998 as the warmest year. Nevertheless, NASA
has indeed newly ranked 1934 as the warmest year..."

Email Response from James Hansen to Demian McLean, August 14, 2007:
"...We have not changed ranking of warmest year in the U.S. As you
will see in our 2001 paper we found 1934 slightly warmer, by an
insignificant hair over, 1998. We still find that result. The flaw
affected temperatures only after 2000, not 1998 and 1934."

Email from NASA Scientist Makiko Sato to James Hansen, August 14,
2007: "I am sure I had 1998 warmer at least once on my own temperature
web page..." (Email includes temperature chart dated January 1, 2007.)

(This issue also crops up in email communications with New York Times
reporter Andrew Revkin a little over a week later.)

According to the NASA email, NASA's incorrect temperature readings
resulted from a "flaw" in a computer program used to update annual
temperature data.

Hansen, clearly frustrated by the attention paid to the NASA error,
called McIntyre a "pest" and suggested global warming doubters "should
be ready to crawl under a rock by now." Hansen also suggests that
those calling attention to the climate data error did not have a
"light on upstairs."

Many will debate whether the mishandling of the data was an honest
mistake, or a purposeful attempt to exaggerate the global warming
crisis. But in the least, these documents ought to be embarrassing for
NASA, especially given the recent Climategate scandal. Needless to
say, NASA has an obligation to be completely transparent with its
handling of temperature data. And here's an idea: Instead of insulting
those who point out mistakes, maybe NASA scientists should try to
engage the public in an open, professional and honest manner. Just a
thought.