Russian papers are reporting that another fallout of ClimateGate is that Hadley/CRU has distorted the climate of 1/8th of the planet by cherry-picking warmer stations and ignoring the colder ones (emphasis added):
[T]he Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory.
Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports.
Over 40% of Russian territory was not included in global-temperature calculations for some other reasons, rather than the lack of meteorological stations and observations.
The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.
My take: Russia is an Oil State and would lose out if fossil fuels were taxed or limited. This report may be true but given the timing of it (Copenhagen) and the politics involved, their core data needs to be reviewed before their conclusion is taken seriously. If it is found that CRU has cherry-picked, it becomes another reason to remove the climate cabal and have the temperature record re-constructed with unbiased climate scientists, if any are left.
It wasn’t so secret that the data from Russia has been cherry-picked. But, the extent and intent of cherry-picking was not clear until the data could be examined and this news was release. This relates back to the emails from CRU and the “or” statement regarding which Russian sites to use. This really has little to do with oil in Russia or the U.S.
Russian Climate Center? How exactly does a political economic action group like the Russian IEA, become a climate center? Climate analysis by economists – earth shattering!
This plot, from p 20 of the IEA report, showing how the temperatures from the IEA group compared with the group they say CRU selected. Since 1960 there’s virtually no difference, and not much going back to 1900. It looks like, not cherry-picking, but a very representative selection.