Climatologist Phil Jones fights back

Climatologist Phil Jones fights back

Olive Heffernan traveled to the University of East Anglia in Norwich to meet with Phil Jones, the climatologist at the centre of the hacked email controversy. From Climate Feedback part of Guardian Environment Network

Olive Heffernan for Climate Feedback part of Guardian Environment Network
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 February 2010 10.06 GMT

Jones was the director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, when, last November, more than 1,000 e-mails and documents were illegally obtained from the university and posted on the Internet. Their contents quickly embroiled him in a controversy that has shaken the climate community and threatened his career.

Jones has stood down from his post while several independent investigations look into the affair, including one headed by Muir Russell, former vice-chancellor of the University of Glasgow, UK, which will assess allegations that the e-mails contain evidence of poor scientific practice at the CRU.

I had an hour to speak with Jones about the allegations that pertain specifically to his conduct as a scientist. Jones seemed rattled by the events of the past few months, and was reluctant to revisit the details of how it has affected him personally. He was also unable to comment on allegations that he withheld or destroyed data from his critics, as this is currently under investigation by the Muir enquiry.

But he was eager to set the record straight on the science.

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B - Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically-significant global warming

Yes, but only just. I also calculated the trend for the period 1995 to 2009. This trend (0.12C per decade) is positive, but not significant at the 95% significance level. The positive trend is quite close to the significance level. Achieving statistical significance in scientific terms is much more likely for longer periods, and much less likely for shorter periods.

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