cc: "Davies Trevor Prof (ENV)" , "Summers Brian Mr (REG)" , "Preece Alan Mr (MAC)" date: Tue Oct 20 15:41:11 2009 from: Phil Jones subject: Re: FW: Climate Research Centre crisis spreads to: "Ogden Annie Ms (MAC)" , "Briffa Keith Prof (ENV)" Annie, Keith's response is almost written. He is just awaiting for one piece of additional information from the Russians. Hopefully this will be up by the end of the week. Thanks for following up with the Spectator. If you want me to email this David Robinson then I can do. It is difficult to stop this sort of rubbish spreading across the internet. No CRU work is flawed. If it hadn't been this issue then it would have been something else. They are just getting at us because we are not responding to them. I have been to a couple of meetings recently - a summer school in Italy early last week and a meeting at the Royal Society last Thursday. There were no comments or discussions about the issue. The only time the issue was raised was over a coffee, and then it was people wishing us well and wondering how we put up with it. Climate scientists know it is all rubbish. As they told me, science is done through publications, not via blog sites. I'd expect that we will reopen all these blog sites once something goes up on the CRU site. Maybe when it all dies down later in the year, UEA/ENV/CRU need to consider what we have learned from the alleged scandal. Should we have responded differently, for example, and if so how? At the moment, I don't see how we could have responded any differently. Despite all the publicity, there are at least 3 people in the US who have had it much worse than us and they are still writing normal papers in the literature. Cheers Phil At 15:16 20/10/2009, Ogden Annie Ms (MAC) wrote: Dear Phil and Keith, Marcus has just received this message below from the EDP environment correspondent. He is telling her he knows nothing about it (true, as he has just returned from China). I have just dropped a note to the solicitor asking if she sees any problem in our warning her to be very cautious in how anything is phrased and issuing a statement along the following lines. (I think the last line would have to come directly from you Keith) For info, still no response from the Spectator to the letter. I have rung three times (fist time PA told me message had been opened) and emailed. Solicitor is now looking closely at the piece in the Spectator to judge whether to send a solicitor's letter. Best, Annie Draft statement Any implication that Professor Keith Briffa deliberately selected tree-ring data in order to manufacture evidence of recent dramatic warming in the Yamal region of northern Russia is completely false. A full rebuttal is published on the Climatic Research Unit's website. This stems from a report on the Climate Audit blog site - a site for climate change sceptics. The blog's editor, Steve McIntyre, has produced an alternative history of tree-growth changes in the Yamal region by substituting some of the data used in Prof Briffa's published and peer-reviewed analysis, with recent data from a more localised origin than the data analysed by Prof Briffa. While McIntyre's selection produces a different result, it cannot be considered to be more authoritative. This appears to be an attempt to discredit the work of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate talks. ------------------------------- Annie Ogden, Head of Communications, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ. Tel:+44 (0)1603 592764 [1]www.uea.ac.uk/comm ............................................ -----Original Message----- From: Armes Marcus Mr (VCO) Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 2:40 PM To: Ogden Annie Ms (MAC) Subject: FW: Climate Research Centre crisis spreads Here it is Annie -----Original Message----- From: Greaves, Tara [[2]mailto:Tara.Greaves@archant.co.uk] Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:11 PM To: Armes Marcus Mr (VCO) Subject: FW: Climate Research Centre crisis spreads Also, do you know anything about this? -----Original Message----- From: David_Robinson [[3]mailto:darobin@netcomuk.co.uk] Sent: 19 October 2009 22:45 To: newsdesk@archant.co.uk Subject: Climate Research Centre crisis spreads Sir, I draw your attention to the growing international climate change scandal that is engulfing the CRU and dragging the reputation of it, and Norfolk, through the mud. After several weeks of open criticism of the use of a particular, alledgedly flawed, CRU dataset there has been no attempted rebuttle by the CRU. Latest information suggests that dozens of 'peer reviewed' scientific papers that relied on the same dataset are now 'similarly flawed' and should be withdrawn. This, unfortunately, draws into question a fundamental part of the IPCC conclusion - namely, whether the recent global warming is in fact abnormal and hence attributable to man. I think the continued silence by the CRU on this subject profoundly worrying given the importance of the topic. Any light you can shed on this whole sorry story would be greatly in the public interest, especially given the Copenhagen summit fast approaching. David Robinson [4]http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=7374#comments --- Sent via BlackBerry David Robinson MSc Blacklock and Bowers Limited This email and any attachments to it are confidential and intended solely for the individual or organisation to whom they are addressed. You must not copy or retransmit this e-mail or its attachments in whole or in part to anyone else without our permission. The views expressed in them are those of the individual author and do not necessarily represent the views of this Company. Whilst we would never knowingly transmit anything containing a virus we cannot guarantee that this e-mail is virus-free and you should take all steps that you can to protect your systems against viruses. Archant Regional Limited, is registered in England under Company Registration Number 19300, and the Registered Office is Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich NR1 1RE. Prof. Phil Jones Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090 School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784 University of East Anglia Norwich Email p.jones@uea.ac.uk NR4 7TJ UK ----------------------------------------------------------------------------