Myron on the attack

The smirking media-trained scientifically dissembling Myron Ebell showed up clean-shaved, powder-puffed and in his best suit on Fox news to debate against the scientist Kevin Tenberth talking over a Skype call from his office.

In this interview, Myron promotes his hypothesis of a whistleblower who was disgusted by the scientists, because it makes a better story.

While there might have been an insider, it is likely that he was paid. Although this will be difficult to reveal because lying is the PR industry's full time job, and they only rarely get caught out.

Trenberth: There are certainly disputes among the scientists about how to deal with the so-called skeptics, but not about the science itself. The science itself stands. And of course it's not dependent on a few individuals. There are hundreds of scientists around the world that are doing climate change science.

Q: Myron, was this hacking and posting of emails done for political purposes, do you think?

Ebell: I don't know, but you keep calling it hacking. There's no evidence that it's hacking. It may have been a whistle-blower who is simply disgusted by...

Trenberth: Well, it was hacking, supposedly from Russia.

Ebell: There is no evidence either way on that. Look, I don't want to Kevin Tenberth in particular. I think he's not one of the main gang leaders here. But he's part of a gang that I think is being revealed from these emails. Even more from the data files, as they're cooking the data. And "cooking" is a technical word for manipulating and falsifying the data. They have been doing this for years. I'm sorry, these people have already been revealed as not having any honour. Now they're being revealed as not having any sense of shame. They're just trying to brazen it out. If they had any honour they would come forward. Like Phil Jones, they would come forward and say: Sorry, you're right, I've been caught with the goods, I've been denying requests to share the data for years when I knew it had tremendous problems in it. I knew we were making things up. Fudge factors appear continually in these data files. We didn't know how to deal with it, but I wouldn't admit there were problems with it. This is shameful. They should be talking to their lawyers about it.

Trenberth: That is certainly a shameful comment. That is totally wrong with regard to everything Phil Jones has done. He has tremendous integrity. And the publications are very open about all the problems with the data and how it has been treated. Your charges are simply false.

Ebell: This is simply not true, Dr Trenberth, this is simply not true. There are emails that show he was denying Freedom of Information Act requests in Britain, and when he knew he had the data later he said I've deleted the data, I've destroyed it. It's been damaged. It's irrecoverable. And yet he said, I'm not going to answer these... (grin)

Trenberth: That's a misrepresentation also in both cases.

Ebell: It is not.

Q: There are emails that also seem a little bit childish, might be one way to put it. Here's one of them. It says: "Next time I see Pat Michaels at a scientific meeting, I'll be tempted to beat the crap out of him."

Trenerth: That sort of thing is unfortunate. It's not a comment that I made. And indeed on personal emails I'm sure you will find that kind of thing. But that doesn't undermine the integrity of the science at all. And the charges about the Freedom of Information Act are really quite flawed because a lot of the data are proprietary, and Phil Jones does not have the option of passing it on. And no data have been deleted. Let me assure you (Myron grinning and nodding like a cat playing with a half-killed mouse) unless it was a long time ago for reasons that don't have any malicious intent.

Myron, you know it. Every time you lie, a fairy dies.

Data should always have been published. The CRU was getting grief over this back in 2001. There is no excuse. The 2007 publication of GISTEMP resulted in the clear climate code project. With some encouragement, this could have happened here too. But you can't blame the climate scientists if they feel embattled by the world out there which gives safe harbour to monsters like Myron Ebell who lie and attack from all corners of the TV land.