Boy, Mark Steyn is really asking for it:
So Mann’s work “did not fall within the remit” of Lord Oxburgh’s investigation …but somehow it “exonerated” him anyway. Mann lies easily, smoothly, glibly, using small, sly lies to support bigger, bolder ones. But his entire career is a pile-up of contradictions like these.
Mann might sue him for this.
Oh, wait.
You should be aware of this. It’s an attempt to explain why the Briffa data goes all wacky in the 20th century. An argument will eventually be advanced that Mann made the Briffa truncation because of effects like these, even though the paper hadn’t been written at the time. It’ll be explained away as having been common knowledge at the time.
The top comment is telling:
How does he know the readings are 2X what they should be, or 2X less, or whatever, in any time interval except that which overlays the instrument record? He doesn’t. He’s a idiot.
When did people become so stupid? What was I doing at the time that I didn’t notice it until it suddenly became the norm?
Under global warming theory, as the Earth heats up more heat in the form of water vapor will be pumped from the tropics to the high latitudes, increasing cloud cover above the trees under study and reducing the width of their growth rings. But prior to industrialization, excess heat from the tropics moved to high latitudes as fairy dust and unicorn poop (which is an excellent fertilizer), so the science is sound.