If you want to fully understand the science behind those now-famous phrases coming out of the Climategate scandal (“Mike’s nature trick” and “hide the decline”), Marc Sheppard over at American Thinker provides an excellent explanation of just what the Climategate scientists were trying to distort. Sheppard also explains how this distortion lead to the infamous “hockey stick” graph which shows a steep increase in warming over the last 100 years.
Sheppard states that contrary to what’s largely being reported in the media “it was not the temperature decline the planet has been experiencing since 1998 that Jones and friends conspired to hide.”
Rather “the decline Jones so urgently sought to hide was not one of measured temperatures at all, but rather figures infinitely more important to climate alarmists — those determined by proxy reconstructions. As this scandal has attracted new readers to the subject, I ask climate-savvy readers to indulge me while I briefly explain climate proxies, as they are an essential ingredient of this contemptible conspiracy.”
Sheppard’s piece is an absolute must read for those trying to follow this important issue. Read the whole thing here.