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Revision as of 21:53, 14 September 2010 by William M. Connolley (talk | contribs) (rv: please discuss on talk. This isn't even close to a balanced view.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Andrew Montford | |
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Nationality | English |
Education | BSc (chemistry), CA |
Alma mater | University of St Andrews |
Occupation(s) | Writer and editor |
Known for | Climate-change scepticism |
Notable work | The Hockey Stick Illusion (2010) |
Website | Bishop Hill |
Andrew William Montford is an English writer and editor who is the owner of the Bishop Hill blog for climate-change sceptics. He is the author of The Hockey Stick Illusion (2010).
Early life
Andrew Montford graduated from the University of St Andrews with a degree in chemistry.
Montford is a chartered accountant. In 2004, he helped with the foundation of Anglosphere, which provides editing services to publishers and other business. His focus at the company is to develop their approach to the publication of scientific literature.
Public career
Bishop Hill
Montford founded the Bishop Hill blog on November 21, 2006 which at first focused on British politics. He describes it as one of the main websites for global warming sceptics in the United Kingdom. Matt Ridley writes in The Spectator that Montford became interested in climate change in 2005 after reading a post by blogger Tim Worstall, who was in turn writing about the work of Stephen McIntyre, the editor of the blog Climate Audit. Montford's layperson's approach to the Hockey Stick debate has received a number of favourable comments, including from The Spectator, specifically his summaries of posts from Climate Audit, which he called "Caspar and the Jesus Paper" and "The Yamal Implosion".
Bishop Hill has come to public attention several times. In November 2009, journalist James Delingpole credited Bishop Hill with reporting the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs funding of the Climate Outreach and Information Network charity in the amount of £700,000 over two years. In February 2010, the Daily Mail reported that Paul Dennis, a British climate scientist, had posted an account on Bishop Hill of Dennis's interview with police investigating the November 2009 unauthorized release of e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit called Climategate by the press. Also in February 2010, Philip Campbell, the editor-in-chief of Nature, resigned from Sir Muir Russell's Independent Climate Change Email Review after Bishop Hill and Channel 4 News drew attention to an interview Campbell had given in 2009 to China Radio International, in which he said there was no evidence the scientists had engaged in a coverup.
The Hockey Stick Illusion
Main article: The Hockey Stick IllusionMontford's The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science was published in January 2010 by Stacey International. Montford examines the history of the "hockey stick graph" of global temperatures for the last 1000 years, and argues that more recent research has failed to validate the original studies which appeared in Nature. He discusses the peer review process and Stephen McIntyre's efforts to obtain the data behind the graph. The last few chapters examine "Climategate". The book has received a number of positive reviews, including those of Matt Ridley in Prospect and Christopher Booker in The Daily Telegraph. Alastair McIntosh, writing in the Scottish Review of Books, strongly criticised the book.
Media appearances
Montford has been interviewed a number of times about the "Climategate" controversy. Britain's Channel 4 asked him in March 2010 to look at some of the questions Phil Jones might be asked during the parliamentary inquiry into the controversy. Montford wrote in Times Higher Education that the email conversations at the heart of Climategate "suggest a campaign to nobble journals, marginalise climate-change sceptics and withhold data from other researchers."
He was interviewed in April 2010 by Dennis Prager, an American radio talk show host, and during the same month participated in a live web-debate hosted by The Times; the debate also featured Times environment editor Ben Webster and Bob Ward of the London School of Economics's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Montford alleged in the debate that the investigations into the leaking of the e-mails were compromised by "highly questionable memberships." He also questioned the appointment of Lord Oxburgh to the panel, writing that Oxburgh has a "direct financial interest in the outcome of his inquiry."
In an interview with Bruce Robbins in The Courier Montford said, "I believe that CO2, other things being equal, will make the planet warmer. The six million dollar question is how much warmer. I'm less of a sceptic than people think. My gut feeling is still sceptical but I don't believe it's beyond the realms of possibility that the AGW hypothesis might be correct. It's more the case that we don't know and I haven't seen anything credible to persuade me there's a problem."
Climatic Research Unit emails controversy
In July 2010, the Global Warming Policy Foundation asked Montford to lead an inquiry into the three British investigations into the Climatic Research Unit email controversy. His report The Climategate Inquiries was published in September 2010.
See also
References
- ^
- Memorandum submitted by Andrew Montford, The disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, Science and Technology Committee, Session 2009-10, www.publications.parliament.uk, accessed May 7, 2010;
- Andrew W. Montford, Anglosphere, accessed May 7, 2010;
- Montford, Andrew. The Hockey Stick Illusion. Stacey International, 2010, back cover.
- ^ Ridley, Matt. "The Global Warming Guerrillas", The Spectator, February 3, 2010.
- Webster, Ben. Oxburgh, the climate science peer, ‘has a conflict of interest’", The Times, March 23, 2010.
- Booker, Christopher. "A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC", The Daily Telegraph, February 27, 2010.
- The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, accessed May 7, 2010
- "Andrew W Montford". Anglosphere. p. 1. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
- Dale, Iain. Iain Dale's Guide to Political Blogging in the UK. Harriman House Publishing. p. 269. ISBN 978-1905641628.
- House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. "Memorandum submitted by Andrew Montford", The disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, Session 2009-2010, www.publications.parliament.uk, retrieved 6 May 2010.
- Ridley, Matt. "The Global Warming Guerrillas", The Spectator, February 3, 2010; Montford, Andrew. "Caspar and the Jesus paper", Bishop Hill blog, August 11, 2008, and "The Yamal implosion", Bishop Hill blog, September 29, 2009, accessed May 7, 2010.
- Delingpole, James. "Climategate: how they all squirmed", a Daily Telegraph blog, 29 November 2009.
- Daily Mail. "Police question global warming 'sceptic' scientist over 'Climategate' email leak", 5 February 2010. The Daily Mail writes: "It is understood Mr Dennis has been instructed not to talk to the media, but he posted his account of the interview on a British website run by climate change sceptic Andrew Montford."
- Batty, David and Adam, David. "Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned", The Guardian, 12 February 2010.
- Clarke, Tom. "'Climate-gate' review member resigns", Channel 4 News, 11 February 2010.
- Ridley, Matt. The case against the hockey stick, Prospect, March 20, 2010; Gilder, George. George Gilder Hails "The Hockey Stick Illusion" on the Science Scandal of Global Warming, Discovery News, February 25, 2010; Booker, Christopher. A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC, The Daily Telegraph, April 03 2010.
- McIntosh, Alastair (2010). "Reviews - The Hockey Stick Illusion". Scottish Review of Books. 6 (3).
- Questions for Climategate boss facing MPs, Channel 4, March 1, 2010.
- Montford, Andrew. "Heated discussions", Times Higher Education, May 1, 2010.
- Dennis talks to AW Montford, Dennisprager.com, April 22, 2010, accessed May 7, 2010
- "Live debate: can we trust the outcome of the climategate inquiry?". The Times Online. 14 April 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
- Robbins, Bruce (02.04.10). "Bishop Hill: the blogger putting climate science to test". The Courier. The Courier. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
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(help) - Foster, Peter, "Peter Foster: Checking the hockey team", National Post, July 9, 2010. "The third British investigation into the Climategate scandal -- led by former civil servant Sir Muir Russell -- amounts, at best, to a greywash. The U.K.-based Global Warming Policy Foundation, an influential skeptical institution, has now appointed Mr. Montford to run an inquiry into the three British inquiries. There will be no whitewash here, "
- Andrew, Montford (2010-09-14). "The Climategate Inquiries". Global Warming Policy Foundation. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
The report The Climategate Inquiries, written by Andrew Montford and with a foreword by Lord (Andrew) Turnbull, finds that the inquiries into the conduct and integrity of scientists at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia were rushed and seriously inadequate.
External links
- Climate science after the ‘hockey stick’ affair by AW Montford, Spiked (magazine), 6/22/2010