Watts Up With That?: Difference between revisions
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In late 2009, an archive containing emails and other documents from the [[Climate Research Unit]] of the [[University of East Anglia]] was illegally released to the public. ''[[The Guardian]]'' reported that WUWT was one of three bloggers "sent links to the cache of CRU leaked material, via anonymous servers, on the same day, Tuesday 17 November".<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/04/climate-change-email-hacking-leaks Detectives question climate change scientist over email leaks]</ref> |
In late 2009, an archive containing emails and other documents from the [[Climate Research Unit]] of the [[University of East Anglia]] was illegally released to the public. ''[[The Guardian]]'' reported that WUWT was one of three bloggers "sent links to the cache of CRU leaked material, via anonymous servers, on the same day, Tuesday 17 November".<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/04/climate-change-email-hacking-leaks Detectives question climate change scientist over email leaks]</ref> |
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In an interview with the ''[[Financial Times]]'', Watts claimed that his blog became "busier than ever" after the incident and that traffic to the site tripled. According to the same article, the total number of hits on the site since its launch had topped 37 million.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a6c0411c-2adf-11df-886b-00144feabdc0.html |title=E-mail leaks that clouded climate issue}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=94838 | title=Politicising and scare tactics cloud the issue}}</ref> |
In an interview with the ''[[Financial Times]]'', Watts claimed that his blog became "busier than ever" after the incident and that traffic to the site tripled. According to the same article, the total number of hits on the site since its launch had topped 37 million.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a6c0411c-2adf-11df-886b-00144feabdc0.html |title=E-mail leaks that clouded climate issue}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=94838 | title=Politicising and scare tactics cloud the issue}}</ref> |
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According to conservative<ref>[http://jamesdelingpole.com/about/ James Delingpole]</ref> commentator [[James Delingpole]], blogging for the [[Daily Telegraph]], the name "Climategate" was first coined by the WUWT commentator "Bulldust". <ref>{{cite web | url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100018246/climategate-how-the-greatest-scientific-scandal-of-our-generation-got-its-name/ | title=Climategate: how the 'greatest scientific scandal of our generation' got its name}}</ref> |
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====Analysis of temperature records==== |
====Analysis of temperature records==== |
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Revision as of 20:28, 12 March 2010
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. |
Type of site | blog |
|---|---|
| Created by | Anthony Watts |
| URL | http://wattsupwiththat.com |
Watts Up With That (WUWT for short) is a blog set up in 2006 by former broadcast weather presenter Anthony Watts.
Involvement in "Climategate" controversy
In late 2009, an archive containing emails and other documents from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia was illegally released to the public. The Guardian reported that WUWT was one of three bloggers "sent links to the cache of CRU leaked material, via anonymous servers, on the same day, Tuesday 17 November".[1]
In an interview with the Financial Times, Watts claimed that his blog became "busier than ever" after the incident and that traffic to the site tripled. According to the same article, the total number of hits on the site since its launch had topped 37 million.[2][3]
Analysis of temperature records
Journalist Christopher Booker, in the 2009 book The Real Global Warming Disaster, describes one of WUWT's functions as "systematically checking the reliability of the 1,221 weather stations recording surface temperatures across the US".[4][unreliable source?] WUWT readers provided Watts with photographs of weather stations located near sources of heat, and these were published by the right-wing thinktank The Heartland Institute together with a claim by Watts that they showed that US temperature record was unreliable. These weather stations were investigated by National Climatic Data Center scientists, who published a paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research showing that weather stations Watts thought would be influenced by heat sources actually showed a slight cooling bias, probably due to these stations being more likely to have newer measuring equipment. Watts said he would be analysing more of the stations.[5]
Booker also claimed that WUWT played a major role in discovering a data entry error in GISS data that made it appear that October 2008 was the warmest October ever.[6] [unreliable source?] Climatologist Gavin Schmidt described how the copying error had been removed within 24 hours while corrections were prepared, claims that there had been a GISS press release were false, and commentators on WUWT had made claims alleging scientific fraud and conspiracy.[7]
Criticism
In The Globe And Mail Jeet Heer wrote of WUWT and the blog Climate Audit (which takes a similar view on the subject of man made global warming): "The sites' rising popularity, and the growing influence they appear to wield in shaping public debate, is deeply worrying to the scientific community".[8]
Leo Hickman, a blogger for The Guardian, describes WUWT as somewhere between genuine climate science sceptics and out-and-out denial: in between are the likes of Anthony Watts who risks polluting his legitimate scepticism about the scientific processes and methodologies underpinning climate science with his accompanying politicised commentary.[9]
References
- ^ Detectives question climate change scientist over email leaks
- ^ "E-mail leaks that clouded climate issue".
- ^ "Politicising and scare tactics cloud the issue".
- ^ Booker, Christopher (2009). The Real Global Warming Disaster. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. ISBN 1441110526. page 198
- ^ James Randerson (15 February 2010). "Scientists dispute climate sceptic's claim that US weather data is useless | Environment". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
- ^ Booker, Christopher (2009). The Real Global Warming Disaster. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. ISBN 1441110526. page 253
- ^ Gavin Schmidt (11 November 2008). "Mountains and molehills". RealClimate. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
- ^ Jeet Heer (19 February 2010). "Climategate's guerrilla warriors: pesky foes or careful watchdogs?". The Globe and Mail.
- ^ Hickman, Leo (24 February 2010). "Academic attempts to take the hot air out of climate science debate". Environment Blog. guardian.co.uk.
Contributors
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