Friday, March 05, 2010

The Institute Of Physics Regrets...

The IOP wriggles a bit more, clarifying their original clarification. I've juxtaposed some of the March 2 vs. March 5 passages:

March 2:

The Institute’s statement, which has been published both on the Institute’s website and the Committee’s, has been interpreted by some individuals to imply that it does not support the scientific evidence that the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is contributing to global warming.

March 5:

We regret that our submission has been seized upon by some individuals to imply that IOP does not support the scientific evidence that the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is contributing to global warming.

March 2:

That is not the case. The Institute’s position on climate change is clear: the basic science is well enough understood to be sure that our climate is changing – and that we need to take action now to mitigate that change. More information about IOP’s views can be found on its website here.

March 5:

IOP’s position on global warming is clear: the basic science is well established and there is no doubt that climate change is happening and that we should be taking action to address it now.

This passage from March 2:

It reflected our belief that the open exchange of data, procedures and materials is fundamental to the scientific process. From the information already in the public domain it appears that these principles have been put at risk in the present case, and that this has undermined the trust that is placed in the scientific process.

...is replaced by something milder on March 5th:

The evidence to the Committee was focused however on the need to maintain the integrity, openness and unbiased nature of the scientific process. The key points it makes are ones to which we are deeply committed – ie that science should be communicated openly and reviewed in an unbiased way. However much we sympathise with the way in which CRU researchers have been confronted with hostile requests for information, we believe the case for openness remains just as strong.

And a bit on procedures missing from the March 2 edition:

The preparation of the evidence followed the process we always use for agreeing documents of this kind. We asked the Energy Sub-Group of our Science Board to prepare the evidence, based on their analysis of the material which is already in the public domain. The evidence was then circulated around Science Board, which is a formal committee of the Institute with delegated authority from its trustees to oversee its policy work, and approved.

The actual submission, mind you (and I haven't gone through it thoroughly), does NOT seem to have changed. They are still calling for a broader inquiry to cover those researchers not associated with CRU but who might have conspired with them.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They still need to 'clarify' how exactly their original statement was mysteriously approved as an official IOP statement in the first place.

-- bi

William M. Connolley said...

What a bunch of slimy toads.

http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2010/03/iop_i_hate_it_when_they_do_tha.php

Mind youm the google cache seems to have gone now. I hope you saved a copy. I now have :-)

bi -- International Journal of Inactivism said...

Belette:

Darn... I didn't (was busy). In any case, the IOP can't really alter its submission to the UK Parliament, especially since it's already on the Parliament web site which they have no control over. Unless they're crazy enough to rewrite the version on their own web site into something different from what's on the Parliament site.

-- bi

sarefo said...

i suggest using webcitation.org for preserving links.

cheers

Peter Hartmann - Planet Climate