Climategate scientist breaks his silence

international | environment | other press Thursday July 29, 2010 14:15 by Oswald Bastable

New Scient interviews Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, UK. Full text at url.

Do you feel that climate science and policy should be separate?

PJ I think there should be some separation. What we say about the science should be treated separately from what's happening with the policy. There should be an acceptance that the climate has warmed since measurements began. OK, there's then debate about what caused that warming. But I do find it difficult engaging with people who deny the evidence and say the world has not warmed.

Some of your critics say the emails revealed distortions of peer review. In one, for instance, you wrote about keeping papers out of the IPCC report "even if we have to redefine peer review literature".

PJ Muir Russell showed that to be wrong. He found there was no perversion of the peer-review process. The papers that we were referring to in that email were bad science. One was involved in a long saga in which half the editorial board of the journal that published it resigned. This relates to another issue I've always had difficulty with. I think there are too many journals - and more are coming in climate. So if our critics use the excuse that they can't get papers in scientific journals... well, there are enough journals around. Getting work published is not a problem.