cc: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>, "raymond s. bradley" <rbradley@geo.umass.edu>, Keith Briffa <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>, Tim Osborn <t.osborn@uea.ac.uk>, Scott Rutherford <rutherfo@deschutes.gso.uri.edu>, mhughes@ltrr.arizona.edu, mann@virginia.edu, Annie_Petsonk@environmentaldefense.org, tom crowley <tom@ocean.tamu.edu>
date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 08:20:17 -0500
from: "Michael E. Mann" <mann@virginia.edu>
subject: Re: Advising British Government on paleoreconstructions
to: peter.stott@metoffice.com, peter.stott@metoffice.com

   Hi Peter,
   Oops, sent the other emails to you w/out sending this exlpanation first...
   Thanks  for getting in touch w/ me on this...
   its taken us a couple days to get to the bottom of their error, but we've got it! We're all
   drafting an op-ed reply for "USA Today" as I write this...
   Bottom line--they didn't use the correct proxy data. Rather than using the publically
   posted version of the proxy data, they used an excel file that they had requested from my
   associate Scott Rutherford in which multiple series were inadvertantly overprinted into
   single data columns. This renders the proxy data series for the period prior to about 1700
   largely useless, and the series prior to 1600 or so completely meaningless. Thus, they're
   wacky result for the earlier centuries in particular.
   So, their results are completely wrong, and E&E will need to retract the paper.
   I'm forwarding more details now...
   mike
   At 11:23 AM 10/29/2003 +0000, Peter Stott wrote:

     Hi Mike,
     I am being asked for scientific advice by DEFRA (Dept of Environment
     here) who in their turn are being asked for help by the Foreign Office
     from people at the US Embassy who are trying to deal with the various
     climate sceptic stuff that is coming out.
     In particular I have seen the paper by
     McIntyre and McKitrick in Energy and Environment.
     Any ammunition you can give me on this paper would be very helpful,
     since I will have to try to inform the people at DEFRA and the FCO what
     we think of this scientifically.
     Thanks !
     Peter
     --
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      Dr. Peter Stott   Climate Scientist
      Met Office    Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
      London Road   Bracknell   Berkshire   RG12 2SY   United Kingdom
      Tel: +44 (0)1344 854011   Fax: +44 (0)1344 854898
      E-mail:peter.stott@metoffice.com   [1]http://www.metoffice.com
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     From 10 November
     Address :
     Met Office       Hadley Centre (Reading Unit)
     Meteorology Building,  University of Reading
     Reading RG6 6BB
     Tel: +44 1189 378 5613
     NOTE WILL ALSO BE AT EXETER PART OF EACH WEEK
     Mobile: 07753880683

   ______________________________________________________________
                       Professor Michael E. Mann
              Department of Environmental Sciences, Clark Hall
                         University of Virginia
                        Charlottesville, VA 22903
   _______________________________________________________________________
   e-mail: mann@virginia.edu   Phone: (434) 924-7770   FAX: (434) 982-2137
            [2]http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/people/mann.shtml

