Climate-Gate Debunked?

An academic inquiry has cleared the climate scientist at the center of the so-called "climate-gate" scandal of scientific misconduct.

Climate science skeptics had jumped on hundreds of emails and other documents obtained by an unknown computer hacker from a British scientific center, the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, in late November.

Climate skeptics claimed Dr. Michael E. Mann, author of some of the emails, seemed to indicate he destroyed some data and was using a "trick" to manipulate other data. The academic board at Pennsylvania State University, where Dr. Mann is employed, defined "trick" as a term used by scientists and mathematicians to refer to an insight that solves a problem in their ruling. Dr. Mann also produced data and emails that skeptics claimed he had destroyed to influence evidence.

Despite the ruling of the board, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), an outspoken climate science skeptic, is still calling for an independent investigation.

GAP’s Climate Science Watch program has been following this issue since the news first broke last year.