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Dear Timothy,

In reference to your article on Pajamas Media;

“Rumors of the Death of Arctic Sea Ice Greatly Exaggerated”

where you state;

“GISS has made serious errors before, including proclaiming 1998 the hottest year on record”

Could you provide a corroborating source statement from NASA GISS? If you cannot, will you issue a retraction?

Thanks.

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The comment was deleted.

The following email was sent to Glenn Reynolds, Stephen Green, and David Russin. Could you help? Could someone acknowledge the issue?

Dear Sirs,

There appears to be a case of false attribution in one of your articles

(Rumors of the Death of Arctic Sea Ice Greatly Exaggerated)

where the author states

“GISS has made serious errors before, including proclaiming 1998 the hottest year on record”

I’ve been trying to obtain from PJM either a retraction or a corroborating source statement where NASA GISS state the above. I have yet to receive an acknowledgment of an email sent to the PJM editorial department (via the contact page) alerting PJM to this issue over two weeks ago. I have since sent another email by the same method and posted several comments on the thread, also to no avail. I would be grateful if you would look into this.

I’ve included the two emails below along with a comment from the thread which provides context of what the data showed and what NASA GISS said about it / interpreted from it.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Regards

Lazar [snip]

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First email, sent December 21st;

Dear Editor,

The author makes the claim

“GISS has made serious errors before, including proclaiming 1998 the hottest year on record (they quietly corrected it to 1934 without announcing their error)”

As far as it is possible to prove a negative, “proclaiming 1998 the hottest year on record” is false, as shown by quotes prior to the identification of the error, from an AP report and from the then and current director of GISS, Dr. James Hansen… http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/08/so_who_exactly_reported_that_n.php

Unless the author can provide a direct quotation from GISS “proclaiming 1998 the hottest year on record”, I request you issue a retraction.

Also…

GISS issued notice of the correction through their “Updates of Analysis” page, a standard procedure. The implication that GISS dishonestly hid the error is unfair.

The “Updates to Analysis” page is at…
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/updates/

… and the relevant notice is dated Aug. 7, 2007

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Second email, sent December 31st;

Dear Editor,

The author of “Rumors of the Death of Arctic Sea Ice Greatly Exagerrated”, falsely attributed the following claim to NASA GISS;

“GISS has made serious errors before, including proclaiming 1998 the hottest year on record”

This is contradicted by an AP report dated 12 January 1999;

“While temperatures in the United States were the warmest in at least 40 years, final figures aren’t complete, NASA said. But, the agency added, it is clear that 1998 did not match the record warmth of 1934″

And a statement in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Geophysical research, by Dr. James Hansen, the director of GISS, in 2001;

“The U.S. annual (January-December) mean temperature is slightly warmer in 1934 than in 1998″

Therefore I request that Pajamas Media issue a correction unless the author of the article can provide a corroborating direct quotation.

Further information can be found on this page;

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/08/so_who_exactly_reported_that_n.php

I request that Pajamas Media also consider removing two insinuations of dishonesty levelled at GISS.

1)

“(they quietly corrected it to 1934 without announcing their error)”

As GISS released notice of the correction through their “Updates of Analysis” page, a standard procedure, the implication that GISS dishonestly hid the error is unfair.

2)

In relation to another error;

“proclaiming it the warmest October on record (until they were caught)”

The author implies this error was deliberate. In fact it was an inevitable result of the automated processing algorithm applied to station data. The author would have realized this had he done a minimum of research. If needed, I can provide assistance to show that this is the case.

Engendering public mistrust in a major scientific organization *on false grounds* is, in the words of the author, a “serious error”.

I have yet to receive acknowledgment of receipt for a similar email sent to PJM nine days ago, but I realize it is the holiday season, and you are busy, or may not have received the email.

The previous email is included below.

Regards

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Comment submitted on January 2nd;

Pajamas Media authors and editors,

Straight-forward science reporting;

“In 2007 Steve McIntyre identified an error in the GISS surface temperature data. Following a correction, 1998 in the continental US changed from being a statistically insignificant 0.01 deg C warmer than 1934, to a statistically insignificant 0.02 deg C cooler. In both cases 1998 was a statistical dead-heat with 1934 for the title of warmest year on record. Interestingly, GISS never released a statement claiming 1998 as the warmest year despite the 0.01 deg C difference. Instead GISS had the following to say about differences of this magnitude;

‘In comparing temperatures of years separated by 60 or 70 years the uncertainties in various adjustments (urban warming, station history adjustments, etc.) lead to an uncertainty of at least 0.1°C. Thus it is not possible to declare a record U.S. temperature with confidence until a result is obtained that exceeds the temperature of 1934 by more than 0.1°C.’

GISS corrected their analysis and placed notification on the GISS home and “Updates to Analysis” pages within 1-2 days after being informed of the error, although they did not issue a press release.”

Compare with;

“GISS has made serious (1) errors before, including proclaiming 1998 the hottest year on record (2) (they quietly (3) corrected it to 1934 without announcing (4) their error)”

(1) Spin.
(2) Lie.
(3) Spin.
(4) Lie.

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And, yes, Algore, you spent eight years as vice president and went through three national campaigns with nary a discouraging word about global warming-cum-climate change. What’s up with that?? (Never mind. We already know.)