Ray Fleming06/04/2013 00:00
TW
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THROWING mud at people is easy and sometimes it takes a long time to scrape off. Scientists who had been working on the phenomenon of climate change for many years found themselves under opportunistic attack by sceptics on the subject just before the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen last December. The relative failure of that conference was to some extent caused by the last minute questioning of the scientific evidence put before the world leaders gathered to take decisions on measures to limit the effects of climate change. A very few small mistakes were pinpointed and acknowledged in a voluminous report which made a strong case for existence of man-made climate change.

One of the most concerted attacks was on Professor Phil Jones, the head of the respected Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. He was accused of deliberately hiding scientific results which did not support his views and of denying other scientists access to all the research undertaken by his Unit. Yesterday the cross-party House of Commons Science and Technology Committee which has been looking into these allegations said in its report that the focus of criticism on Dr Jones was “largely misplaced” <and that he acted “in line with common practice in the climate science community”. Those who cannot accept that climate change is “real, serious and driven by humans” should be more careful before they throw mud at responsible scientists.