Sunday, June 29, 2008

Scandalous climate science at the UK Met Office

For some very revealing insights into the behaviour of a major UN IPCC scientific contributor check out this post on Steve McIntyre’s ‘Climate Audit’ entitled ‘Fortress Met Office continued’.

Climate Audit has been tracking efforts to obtain documentation from the UK Met Office (see note below) pertaining to its role as a UN IPCC reviewer. The Met Office’s response to requests for information has been repeated stonewalling and evasion - all of which makes them look worse at every turn. The comments make compelling reading and lead into some very interesting nooks and crannies including:

Hanky panky at the Met Office
This comment provided a fascinating link involving 31 year old Katie Hopkins who had been hired by the Met Office as a "global brand consultant" at a salary of £90,000 (~ $180,000). Some questions arise:

- What does a government weather forecasting and climate research organization need a "global brand consultant" for?
- A salary of £90,000 for a 31 year old game show contestant and self-admitted ‘manizer’?

It’s not clear whether the reason for her firing was being photographed in a compromising position (photo below) with a married Met Office colleague. One wag commented:" - when it comes to climate change no one can accuse the Met Office of sitting on the fence!"


Note: The UK Met Office promotes itself "As the UK’s foremost climate research centre, the Met Office Hadley Centre was the single most influential scientific contributor to the [IPCC] Working Group I report – The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change."

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