“Climategate” smears found false – Mann cleared

The final investigation of Dr Michael Mann by the Pennsylvania State Unviersity has now reported. It has unanimously found that “after careful review of all available evidence, there is no substance to the allegation against Dr. Michael E. Mann, Professor, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University.” (You can download the full report here – Final_Investigation_Report).

No surprise to anyone who has followed this whole “climategate” beat up with an objective eye. In this video interview from Climate Science Watch Mann gives his reactions and thoughts on the “climategate” campaign (from Interview with Michael Mann on the Penn State Final Report and the war on climate scientists).

Interview with Michael Mann on the Penn State Final Report and the war on climate scientists.

Its worth quoting from dean of the Graduate school, Henry C. Folley’s, letter reporting the findings:

• Dr. Mann had not seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for conducting research or other scholarly activities. The committee concluded that “the manner in which Dr. Mann used and shared source codes has been well within the range of accepted practices in his field.” They also state that the many prestigious awards and recognitions that Dr. Mann has won “serve as evidence that his scientific work, especially the conduct of his research, has from the beginning of his career been judged to be outstanding by a broad spectrum of scientists.” The committee noted that had his conduct been outside the range of accepted practices “it would have been impossible for him to receive so many awards and recognitions, which typically involve intense scrutiny from scientists who may or may not agree with his scientific conclusions.”
• Dr. Mann had not engaged in any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for reporting research or other scholarly activities. They considered his scholarly record and concluded that “Clearly, Dr. Mann’s reporting of his research has been successful and judged to be outstanding by his peers. This would have been impossible had his activities in reporting his work been outside of accepted practices in his field.”
• On the issue of whether Dr. Mann distributed privileged information to others to gain some advantage for his interpretation of climate change the committee considered “Dr. Mann’s actions in sharing unpublished manuscripts with third parties, without first having received express consent from the authors of such manuscripts, to be careless and inappropriate.”
• In sum, the Investigatory Committee found that “after careful review of all available evidence, there is no substance to the allegation against Dr. Michael E. Mann, Professor, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University.” They note in the report that the decision to find Dr. Mann not guilty of the allegation of research misconduct was reached unanimously.

Final UK inquiry reports next week

Meanwhile – the final scientific  inquiry into  “climategate” is expected to report next week.  This is the Independent Climate Change Email Review.

This has been looking at details of how freedom of information applications were handled. As such, I think this will be the only inquiry which will possible report finding any unethical behaviour. This is an area where scientific institutes have been finding their way on the vexed problem of making data and methodologies fully available. So I expect there will be some useful findings which will help clarify approaches to this problem.

But what about all those conservative newspaper and blogs which uncritically participated in the climategate beat up? Will they now apologise and factually report these findings?

And what about those New Zealand bloggers who participated in this little charade? Who viciously attacked people like Mann, and our own climate scientists?

Sadly, I don’t think they will apologise. I predict they will either ignore this or deliver a spin about “whitewashing.”

Here are some of the initial reports of the news of Mann’s complete and final exoneration.

Mann Cleared in Final Inquiry by Penn State – Dot Earth Blog – NYTimes.com
Climategate’s death rattle | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
Penn State Completely Exonerates Climate Scientist Michael Mann On Bogus Climategate Accusations
Penn State clears Mann in Climate-gate probe
Climate Scientist Michael Mann Fully Exonerated of Misconduct by University
Climategate Scientist Cleared in Inquiry, Again: Scientific American
Will media that advanced “Climategate” smear now report on investigation clearing scientist? | Media Matters for America
Penn State Completely Exonerates Climate Scientist Michael Mann On Bogus Climategate Accusations
Investigation of climate scientist at Penn State complete — Penn State University
Interview with Michael Mann on the Penn State Final Report and the war on climate scientists
Penn State Live – Investigation of climate scientist at Penn State complete
Climate Scientist Michael Mann Fully Exonerated of Misconduct by University
Mann exonerated by PSU inquiry: “No substance to the allegation” « Deep Climate
Much-vindicated Michael Mann and Hockey Stick get final exoneration from Penn State — time for some major media apologies and retractions
An End to Climategate? Penn State Clears Michael Mann
Climategate Continues to Crumble – Ecocentric – TIME.com
Climate Scientist Cleared of Altering Data – NYT
Panel Clears Dr. Michael Mann in “Climategate” – Onward State
Penn State clears Michael Mann of all charges… now, will Climategate please go away?

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