MIT's Lindzen said he still believed Mann committed misconduct. "The fact that he didn't reveal data unless forced to - that's not exactly normal," he said. Of the panel's concessions, he said: "I find it peculiar but not altogether surprising. Institutions tend to try and defend people."
Nearly all climate scientists have been sympathetic to Mann and the other English researchers whose private e-mail messages were exposed. Some have wondered why the "scandal" isn't centered on the illegal hacking of private e-mail.
Authorities have not revealed who was responsible for the stolen e-mail.
Several climate researchers have also expressed surprise at the way Climategate inflated the importance of Mann's work as evidence for climate change. Mann himself says it's just one of many lines of evidence.
In an interview earlier this year, Texas A&M's Gerald North said he would remain concerned about global climate change even if all the researchers deriving "hockey stick" graphs turned out to be wrong. Climate models, he said, are becoming increasingly convincing. And it's becoming harder to ignore the retreat of glaciers and shrinkage of sea ice.
The large-scale pattern of warming is what makes human-generated greenhouse gases a more likely cause than changes in the sun, said NCAR's Ammann. Solar changes tend to heat the upper atmosphere, while greenhouse warming tends to heat the oceans and lower atmosphere, leaving the upper atmosphere colder. And that, he said, is exactly the pattern that scientists are observing.
Contact staff writer Faye Flam
at 215-854-4977 or fflam@phillynews.com.
