What do climate scientists-bureaucrats do when they need to convince policymakers that global warming is "accelerating" and "unprecedented"? Well.....what would crooks and liars do if faced with the same challenge? They would cook-the-books in order for the scam to be believable.
How would one cook the global warming books? As it turns out, it's easy for scientists to do. One, prior warm temperatures need to be "cooled" down and then later temperatures need to be "warmed" up. This is exactly what the National Climate Data Center accomplished in 2009 with their new global temperature series.
First, the NCDC cooled down the hot 1920 and 1930's by adjusting temps down at a per century rate of -33.7 degrees (a maximum cumulative temperature adjustment of -16.8 degrees). Next, they adjusted the post-WWII temperatures up (a cumulative positive temperature adjustment of 9.3 degrees), to the tune of a 12.9 degree per century warming trend - voila, instant Joe Romm-scary, accelerating and unprecedented global warming. (click on image to enlarge)
As a result of the climate scientists and climate research agencies cooking the books, in their attempt to prove global warming is worse than reality, the public no longer is buying into the global warming hysteria, and is rapidly losing faith in scientists, in general.
Most experts familiar with the climate science field can easily name the 'crooks and liars' responsible for the gross fabrication of temperatures. It would be pleasing to finally see these individuals and agencies be held responsible for their actions - those actions being purposefully designed to deceive both politicians and the public alike. But, instead of focusing on the past (investigating past climate science transgressions), the Republicans should focus on the future by establishing new polices and guidelines to prevent past instances of flagrant scientific abuse from reoccurring.
At a minimum, the GOP should relieve all NASA and NOAA climate research units of any future responsibility for temperature data collection, compilation and reporting. A different, single agency should be responsible for these temperature data functions with their single goal being the scientific/statistical accuracy and objective empiricism required for the policymakers' use.
Government advocates (bureaucrats and scientists) for global warming and CO2 emission policies should have zero responsibility for any of the most basic, fundamental data used in the policy debates - it's a massive conflict of interest if they are, and it has already proven to be self-destructive.
This is a policy softball the GOP can knock out of the park, and no "scientist" or "scientific" body could object to removing the temptation of fabricating temperatures once and for all. The GOP would be saving science from its worst-of-breed individuals and at the same time, minimizing the future science fraud in the climate change field.
Additional 'cooking the books' temperature charts.