Climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer weighs in on Kevin Trenberth’s legacy of political ‘science’

[Note: For updates on the Trenberth scandal, see here.]

Related Links:

NEW SCANDAL: Trenberth, the P-word? Steve McIntyre on ‘Trenberth and Copygate’ — ‘Some of Trenberth’s most objectionable language was lifted verbatim from an article in nature earlier this year’ — Say it ain’t so!? ”Kevin Trenberth’s entire paragraph is actually word-for-word identical to the corresponding paragraph in Hasselman’s Nature article’

Kevin Trenberth’s Copy Problem: Will ‘Dr. Bradley move to file a similar complaint against Dr. Trenberth to maintain the standards and integrity of climate science?’

Climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer weighs in on Kevin Trenberth’s legacy of political ‘science’: Spencer: ‘In my experience, Trenberth is the UN’s chief gatekeeper, preventing proposals from being funded and papers being published that might hurt their political agenda’ — Spencer’s website here.

Steve McIntyre on ‘Trenberth’s Bile’ or ‘bilious diatribe’: ‘Unfortunately, we’ve seen too many incidents where climate scientists make false claims that are readily shown to be incorrect’

Physicist warns of Kevin Trenberth’s ‘attempt to change the rules of science’ as a ‘back-door means of bolstering UN IPCC’s diminishing credibility’

Trenberth’s Religious Views: ‘Scientific facts are not open to debate or opinion because they are evidence and/or physically based. Moreover a debate actually gives alternative views credibility’

Meet The Astrologer Kevin Trenberth, the man the Media presents as a ‘top scientist’: ‘Trenberth has gone totally off the scientific reservation into astrology or the occult’ [email protected]Trenberth’s Unscientific Rubbish: ‘Trenberth is saying that there is a high probability that if CO2 levels were 120ppm lower, that the floods in Pakistan would not have occurred. This is pure conjecture, absolutely without facts, and probably bad conjecture at that. Similar events of similar magnitude have occurred through all of recorded history in exactly these locations’

Climatologist Roger Pielke Sr. On Trenberth: ‘Unfortunately, these individuals have been elevated to control much of the climate assessment process and the funding of climate science research’

Trenberth the Doomsday ‘Revolutionary’: The ‘steps required are so revolutionary as to be highly unlikely to be achieved’ [email protected] — ‘It is also essential that much stronger steps be taken to plan for and adapt to the change that is surely coming…we should be more accepting that climate disasters are inevitable, along with environmental refugees’

Climategate & UN IPCC’s Kevin Trenberth’s reveals ‘mindless worshiping’ of IPCC – Offers ‘weird opinions about climate’ – Slams ‘Deniers’ — Calls for a planned

Oh My! 2010 tied for ‘hottest’ year?! Relax, it is ‘purely a political statement’ — Even NASA’s Hansen admits it is ‘not particularly important’ — Prof. mocks ‘hottest decade’ claim as ‘a joke’

Climate Depot Editorial

There they go again. The global warming establishment and the media are crowing about 2010 being in a tie for the “hottest year” ever. Everyone from Senator John Kerry to Joe Romm are screaming that this is “proof” the planet is burning up in a Co2 induced hell — and it’s your fault!

It is time for Climate Depot to do a point-by-point rebuttal to the latest round of temperature data nonsense. Let’s begin:

Below are excerpts from the January 13, 2011 UK Telegraph’s coverage of the warmists’ claim of the “hottest year” ever.

UK Telegraph Headline Claim: “Flood warnings: hottest year confirms global warming say experts — Last year was the joint warmest on record, according to new figures from NASA, that experts say confirm the case for man-made climate change.”

Climate Depot Response: This is pure politics, not science. The “hottest year” claims confirm the case for political science overtaking climate science. The “hottest year” claim depends on minute fractions of a degree difference between years. Even NASA’s James Hansen, the leading proponent of man-made global warming in the U.S., conceded the “hottest year” rankings are essentially meaningless. Hansen explained that 2010 differed from 2005 by less than 2 hundredths of a degree F (that’s 0.018F).It’s not particularly important whether 2010, 2005, or 1998 was the hottest year on record,” Hansen admitted on January 13. According to NASA, none of agencies tasked with keeping the global temperature data agree with each other. “Rankings of individual years often differ in the most closely watched temperature analyses — from GISS, NCDC, and the UK Met Office — a situation that can generate confusion.”

Meteorologist Dr. Ryan Maue of Florida State University ridiculed the “hottest year” rankings and Hansen’s admission that it “was not particularly important” which year was declared the “hottest.” “Well, then stop issuing press releases which tout the rankings, which are subject to change ex post facto,” Maue demanded in a January 14 commentary at WattsUpWithThat.com.

The “warmest year” claim falls apart even further when you look at even slightly longer time scales. Climatologist Patrick Michaels explained to USA Today on January 12: “If you draw a trend line from the data, it’s pretty flat from the 1990s. We don’t see much of a warming trend over the past 12 years.” Also note that the planet has warmed since