Given that James Hansen is an environmental radical alarmist, can we trust the NASA GISS data set he manages?

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Your point is actually very valid in purely scientific terms, despite what the zealots who inhabit YA insinuate. Imagine if Hansen was closely linked to a major coal producing company and a known to be a member of, say, the CEI, and an enthusiastic republican who scorned the idea of AGW. If his data set then indicated there was no warming, would they meekly swallow that as "science"?

Would they hell! They would launch an 'ad hominem' attack like only they can. Vicious assaults and slurs to blacken his name and try to get him fired.

@ Gary F -

In what way was Hansen "right"? Given that his prediction A for future temp rises ("business as usual" scenario) was wrong, how can you say he was "right" about anything. Science, ey? It's what you make it.

I wonder if man is really smart enough to build a computer model that takes into account all the complexities of global climate change. Now we find another flaw in the data. I guess science needs to take another look and reconsider. The real question seems to be whether man can affect the climate or not. If we don't take steps to protect the environment, we can make a mess of it. On the other hand, too many people want to use environmentalism as a political weapon to spread their form of control over others. If we can ratioanally debate the issues and look at all the data and try to find the truth, we will know what to do. I do not think being rational is too likely into today's polarized political climate. It is the polarized political climate that real global warming is occuring.

Sure. Because it's verified by MANY independent scientists.

Just for measuring temperatures itself, we have people running weather stations, analyzing satellite data, looking at data from ocean buoys, etc. They all pretty much agree on the increase.

Then there are measurements of the effects; melting Arctic ice, rising sea levels, earlier Springs, species migrations, etc. It's a big etc. All measured by independent scientists in many different disciplines.

The idea that the temperature data COULD be faked by any one person, or any group, is really silly conspiracy theory stuff. It would have been FAR easier to fake the Moon landings, many fewer people were involved.

Given that Hansen was right when everyone else was wrong and that he has nothing to do with the data set, you should stay away from things you know nothing about - like science.

Given that you believe Hansen is an environmental radical alarmist, can we trust you to evaluate his scientific findings objectively?

Excellent ad hominem attack!

NASA GISS publishes its data analysis methods and all changes to it right there on its public website for everyone to see.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/updates/

If you don't trust them and aren't capable of evaluating their methods (obviously you're not), you could also get the raw GHCN data and analyze it for yourself, as these people have done:

http://tamino.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/false-claim...

http://clearclimatecode.org/the-1990s-station-drop...

http://rankexploits.com/musings/2010/a-simple-mode...

But no, rather than actually evaluate the data, you'd rather engage in slanderous ad hominem attacks. The data is inconvenient for you, so you look for excuses to dismiss it offhand.

This is why nobody takes deniers seriously.

By the way, the IPCC doesn't use GISS data, they use HadCRU. Which they really shouldn't - GISS is better in that their methods are more transparent and they have better global coverage. But really all global temperature data sets (including satellites) are so similar that it doesn't particularly matter which they use.

"I think they should revisit his work"

Go ahead, nobody is stopping you. Anyone can evaluate the GISS methodology at any time. Just saying "they (whoever 'they' is) should revisit his work" is completely meaningless. I just linked to 3 different sites which analyzed the raw data for themselves and found almost identical results to the GISS adjusted data.

I don't trust anything that POS says or does. He should be imprisoned.

I think they should revisit his work because after all, we want the truth, right?