'Hockey Stick' used "inappropriate" methods

The Financial Times reported Wednesday that the famed 'hockey stick' paper by Michael Mann that purports to show tremendous warming in recent years is, in fact, based on "inappropriate" methods. Climate change skeptics have seized on the hockey stick and the 'Climate Gate' emails that suggest a "trick" was used in Mann's analysis to "conceal the decline" in temperatures. President of the Royal Statistical Society David Hand cautioned that the conclusions of a report by the University of East Anglia and the Royal Society should not be construed as dismissing global warming. As the report states:

It is very surprising that research in an area that depends so heavily on statistical methods has not been carried out in close collaboration with professional statisticians.”

An ongoing review will determine whether British freedom of information laws were violated by the cadre of scientists collaborating with Phil Jones, the head of the Climate Research Unit and East Anglia University, who has reportedly been suicidal since Climate Gate erupted shortly before the winter holidays last year.