Is NASA Hiding Raw Climate Change Data To Protect Al Gore's Warming Guru?

Not all of the climate change Hoaxers are members of the CSU in England, the other major "research arm" of the Church of Global Warming is the United States own Space agency, NASA.  The man behind NASA's climate change efforts is James Hansen, who runs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He is also Al Gore's personal climate change guru.

Hansen lives by one strong rule. "If God deals you bad numbers--fudge them."  Remember when NASA announced October 2008 was the warmest in history and then, "OOPS NEVER MIND"  someone figured out a mistake was made? It was James Hansen, the Grand Poobah of warming who is screwed up the numbers. It was actually a quite average month. Ranked 70th in the last 114 years.

It wasn't the first time Hansen has screwed up his numbers. In 2007 he was forced by other scientists to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s. Then there was that little problem in January of 2009 when it was discovered that some of the data he used to come up with his global warming science were "accidentally"  made up.

NASA is doing its best to protect Hansen, the agency is helping him hide his raw data by ignoring a freedom of information request for its release:

Christopher C. Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said NASA has refused for two years to provide information under the Freedom of Information Act that would show how the agency has shaped its climate data and explain why the agency has repeatedly had to correct its data dating as far back as the 1930s.

"I assume that what is there is highly damaging," Mr. Horner said. "These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this."

The numbers matter. Under pressure in 2007, NASA recalculated its data and found that 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year in its records for the contiguous 48 states. NASA later changed its data again, and now 1998 and 2006 are tied for the hottest years, with 1934 listed as slightly cooler.

Mr. Horner, a noted skeptic of global warming and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism," wants a look at the data and the discussions that went into those changes. He said he's given the agency until the end of the year to comply or else he'll sue to compel the information's release.

Mark Hess, public affairs director for the Goddard Space Flight Center, which runs the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) laboratory, said officials are working on Mr. Horner's request, though he couldn't say why they have taken so long.

"We're collecting the information and will respond with all the responsive relevant information to all of his requests," Mr. Hess said. "It's just a process you have to go through where you have to collect data that's responsive."

...NASA's GISS was forced to update its data in 2007 after questions were raised by Steve McIntyre, who runs ClimateAudit.org.

GISS had initially listed the warmest years as 1998, 1934, 2006, 1921 and 1931, respectively. After Mr. McIntyre's questions, GISS rejiggered the list to show 1934 as the warmest, followed by 1998, 1921, 2006 and then 1931. Since then, the list has been rewritten again so it now runs as 1998, 2006, 1934, 1921 and 1999.

The institute blamed "a minor data processing error" for the changes but said it doesn't make much difference, since the top three years remain in a "statistical tie" either way.

Mr. Horner said he's seeking the data itself, but he also wants to see the chain of e-mails from scientists discussing the changes.

....NASA and CRU data are considered the backbone of much of the science that suggests the Earth is warming as a result of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. NASA argues that its data suggest this decade has been the warmest on record.

On the other hand, data from the University of Alabama-Huntsville suggest temperatures have been relatively flat for most of this decade. 

The bottom line is that NASA's James Hansen will do anything to make his global warming numbers look good.  When he made his big global warming announcement 21 years ago (over the objections of two of his supervisors who thought his research was bogus) Hansen became a science super-star.  The reason he keeps fudging his numbers and hiding the raw data is to keep his superstar status. Like the scientists, who in the 1970's who said we were about to fall into an Ice Age, James Hansen simply wrong, but his superstar status takes precedence over science.