Will Climategate Reach American Shores? - NASA Avoiding Freedom of Information Act Requests

It looks like Climategate is not just in the UK.  NASA which houses most of the data on Global Warming in the United States is trying to sidestep freedom of information act requests.  Chris Horner, who is a global warming critic, has been trying to get the raw data that NASA has used to make repeated changes to the warmest years on record. 

In the past several years NASA has updated which years are the warmest record.  Originally it was 1934, then it was 1998, than it was changed back to 1934.  It has since been updated yet again to be 1998 and 2006, with 1934 coming in third. 

Mark Hess, the Director of the department that runs the climate research program within NASA, has said that they are trying to get the information that Mr. Horner has requested.  The problem with this statement is that the request was made two years ago.  Mr. Hess has also told reporters that he is unaware of Climategate issues that are ongoing in the UK. 

According to the Washington times the data has been updated as follows:

GISS had initially listed the warmest years as 1998, 1934, 2006, 1921 and 1931. After Mr. McIntyre's questions GISS rejiggered the list and 1934 was warmest, followed by 1998, 1921, 2006 and then 1931. But since then, the list has been rewritten again so it now runs 1998, 2006, 1934, 1921, 1999.



The institute blamed a "minor data processing error" for the changes but says it doesn't make much difference since the top three years remain in a "statistical tie" either way.