General

‘Climategate’ scientists cleared

Second inquiry finds no wrongdoing

The second of three probes into the ‘climategate’ controversy has vindicated the Climatic Research Unit scientists implicated in the email scandal. The panel was lead by Lord Oxburgh, former chair of the U.K.’s House of Lords science and technology select committee, and commissioned by the University of East Anglia (UAE). They found that although the researchers may have been a bit disorganized, unprepared to deal with the public and extremely informal in their day-to-day interactions, their research was solid and free from malpractice. However, the panel also criticized the government for charging for access to the unit’s findings and wondered why more statisticians weren’t involved in collecting data for the research. The UAE responded to the report by saying, “It is gratifying to us that the Oxburgh report points out that CRU has done a public service of great value by carrying out meticulous work on temperature records when it was unfashionable and attracted little scientific interest.” The third report, also commissioned by the UAE, is expected to be released shortly and will go beyond examining research to investigate allegations arising from statements made in the emails themselves.

Guardian

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