Rep. Gary Palmer falsely claimed on a radio show that temperature data used to measure global climate change have been "falsified" and manipulated.
Palmer, a Republican from Alabama, cited the so-called Climategate episode of five years ago, in which emails written by climate scientists purportedly showed evidence of data manipulation, and a more recent accusation of climate scientists tampering with data from temperature monitoring stations.
The Climategate scandal has been subject to several separate investigations, all of which exonerated all scientists involved from wrongdoing, and the latest data manipulation charges are a mischaracterization of standard and well-validated methods for adjusting temperature records to eliminate factors that could produce inaccurate readings.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. agency responsible for monitoring national and global temperature trends, has addressed these types of adjustments several times before. Monitoring organizations like NOAA use data from other stations nearby to try and adjust for these types of issues, either raising or lowering the temperature readings for a given station. This is known as "homogenization." The most significant adjustment around the world, according to NOAA, is for temperatures taken over the oceans, and that adjustment acts to lower rather than raise the global temperature trend. But, according to NASA, nine of the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 2000, with 1998 the lone exception
Democrats overstate impact of stalemate
Some Democrats overstated the potential impacts of a congressional stalemate that threatens to leave the Department of Homeland Security without funding after Feb. 27. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator will be forced to "furlough something like 80 percent of his FEMA workforce" if Congress fails to pass a funding bill.
Johnson did not make clear he was talking about the 4,000-plus FEMA employees who are funded through the annual appropriations process. But that ignores FEMA employees who are funded by fees and multiyear appropriations, as well as thousands of FEMA reservists who are activated during disasters. In a report issued just prior to a government shutdown in October 2013, DHS said in the event of a funding lapse about 78 percent of FEMA's 14,729 employees would be retained. Likewise, Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, warned that a shutdown "could close down ports up and down the East Coast." But DHS, in that same 2013 report, said 88 percent of Coast Guard employees were exempt from furloughs, including military members and civilian employees who are "either funded by other than annual appropriations or necessary for the protection of life and property."
Distorting faith
Mike Huckabee made a number of twisted claims about President Barack Obama's recent reference to the Crusades and the Inquisition at the National Prayer Breakfast. Obama did not "blame Christians" for the burning of the Jordanian pilot or the beheadings. Obama, who focused his speech on humanity's struggle to reconcile the good and evil that has been done in the name of religion, said religious fanatics "throughout human history" have "distorted their faith." He said this perversion of religion is "not unique to . one religion." Huckabee went on to accuse Obama of being anti-Christian, anti-Jew and pro-Muslim.
Most Jews in Israel don't share Huckabee's view of Obama. The most recent Pew Global Attitudes Project survey from last spring found 71 percent of Israelis had either "some" or "a lot" of confidence that Obama would "do the right thing regarding world affairs." Furthermore, the same poll showed that most people in several Muslim countries don't reflect Huckabee's opinion about support for Obama.
Chip Tuthill lives in Mancos. Website used: www.factcheck.org
