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Does the ‘Mike’s trick’ email from the ‘climategate’ controversy show that scientists were falsifying climate change data?

By John Cook
NO

Climate change deniers used out-of-context quotes from stolen emails to incorrectly allege a “climategate” conspiracy that scientists were falsifying temperature data.

In one case, a scientist is misrepresented as saying that he “completed Mike’s nature trick” to “hide the decline.” These two phrases were dishonestly edited together from different parts of a sentence to fabricate suspicion. In reality, the original quote referred to two separate and legitimate practices. Mike’s trick is not a deception, but a trick of the trade. The “trick” involves plotting direct thermometer measurements in the same graph as proxy data from the past to show modern climate change in a long-term context. 

“Hide the decline” refers not to a real temperature decline, but a decline in the reliability of some tree rings after 1960 as a temperature proxy.

Nine separate investigations exonerated the climate scientists.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Skeptical Science is a non-profit science education organization. Our goal is to remove a roadblock to climate action by building public resilience against climate misinformation. We achieve this by publishing debunking of climate myths as well as providing resources for educators, communicators, scientists, and the general public. Skeptical Science was founded and is led by John Cook, a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne.
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