Once again Michael Mann has been exonerated

The first investigation into Michael Mann’s conduct cleared him on 3 of 4 charges against him. In regards to the 4th charge the investigators didn’t find any evidence against Mann but they felt they were not adequately suited rule on the matter, so they referred judgement until the charge could be properly investigated.

And now it has been, and this what the investigators concluded:

The Investigatory Committee, after careful review of all available evidence, determined that there is no substance to the allegation against Dr. Michael E. Mann, Professor, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University. More specifically, the Investigatory Committee determined that Dr. Michael E. Mann did not engage in, nor did he participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research, or other scholarly activities.

The decision of the Investigatory Committee was unanimous.

In other words a full exoneration. These investigations into Mann’s conduct were called after the CRU email leak, and along with several investigations in the UK, show that there is no evidence to back up claims that climategate somehow undermines the science supporting global warming.

Of course for deniers having investigations clear climate scientists of wrong doing is proof that this is all a massive conspiracy. They don’t bother asking why a world class institution like Penn State would risk its reputation for a single investigator.

The claims that they would do it in order to preserve the grant money that someone like Mann brings in simply don’t stack up:

According to a list of grants at The Free Republic, Mann has brought in a total of $4.2 million since he joined PSU in 2006, with a significant portion of that money to be spent over the next several years. From 2006 to 2009, Mann’s grants totalled about $1.8 million. In that same period, PSU’s total research income was $2.8 billion ($2,804 million). As a percentage, Mann’s grants represented 0.06% of the total research money that PSU was granted between 2006 and 2009.

So to rational people, given that there is absolutely no evidence to suggest otherwise, this is a clear vindication of Michal Mann. This investigation, and those conducted in the UK, clearly demonstrate that claims that climategate somehow undermines the science supporting global warming are without merit.

But let me be clear: that has almost no bearing on what the denialists will say or do. They will continue to beat this drum, have no doubt. Climategate may be dead, but the zombie attacks will continue.

To deniers they only serve as proof that there is a massive conspiracy. That is what makes them deniers.

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