Steve McIntyre

 Credentials

• Steve McIntyre studied mathematics at University of Toronto, graduating in 1969 with a B.Sc.
• Studied PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) at Oxford University, graduating in 1971.

Source: [1]

 Background

As of 2003, McIntyre had worked in the mineral business for 30 years, having been an officer or director of several small public mineral exploration companies for over 16 years. He has been described as a "persistent amateur who had no credentials in applied science before stepping into the global warming debate in 2003." [1] , [2]

McIntyre maintains the blog climateaudit.org which documents his attempts to find statistical mistakes in peer-reviewed scientific literature.

McIntyre has worked for 30 years in the mining business. He left the mining company Noranda around 1988 to help found Timmons Nickel.  He describes his role in Timmins in his testimony to Canadian Parliment against environmental regulations.  Mcintyre then became president of Northwest Explorations which was taken over by CGX Energy in 1998.  He also became president of Dumont Nickel, but left Dumont in 2002 to "pursue other interests."  In 2003, CGX Enegy's annual report listed McIntyre as a "Strategic Advisor," the same year he first published an article with McKitrick.

According a bio listed on the University of Guelph website, (.doc) this period involved, among other things, "general corporate management, including specific oversight of company audited financial statements, annual reports, numerous corporate disclosure documents; oversight of exploration programs; direction of several corporate re-organizations." [1]

As of 2010, McIntyre says he missed out on a lucrative mining boom due to his climate blogging, and said he would be getting back into the mining sector. [3]

Several descriptions of McIntyre portray him as an advisor to both the Ontario and Canadian governments, including the Marshall Institute, Wikipedia and interviews.  Other than his testimony to Canadian Parliment in 1991, we have been unable to find any reference to his role as a policy advisor.

Stance on Climate Change

Responding to the question, "Does your work disprove global warming?", McIntyre replied that "We [McIntyre and Mckitrick] have not made such a claim. There is considerable evidence that in many locations the late 20th century was generally warmer than the mid-19th century. However, there is also considerable evidence that in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, the mid-19th century was exceptionally cold. We think that a more interesting issue is whether the late 20th century was warmer than periods of similar length in the 11th century. We ourselves do not opine on this matter, other than to say that the MBH results relied upon so heavily by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2001 report are invalid." [4]

Key Quotes

"What I find that is far too prevalent among climate scientists is that if they don't persuade somebody of something, they blame the audience, not the presentation".

Referring to Michael Mann's climate data, McIntyre concluded "Nobody had ever checked this stuff with any sort of due diligence". [5]

"In my opinion, CRU has manipulated and/or withheld data with an effect on the research record. The manipulation includes (but is not limited to) arbitrary adjustment ('bodging'), cherry picking and deletion of adverse data." [6]

Key Deeds

Ongoing

McIntyre and McKitrick have published two papers that were re-published and distributed by the George C. Marshall Institute – a right wing thing tank that has received $715,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998.

Together McIntyre and Mckitrick (who call themselves "M&M") have since published a series of articles and papers devoted to criticizing Michael Mann's Hockey Stick Graph. [7]

DeSmogBlog also covered the back-and-forth debate between Mann, McIntyre, and McKitrick.

Note that one of their papers has been rejected by Nature, and were also discredited by the scientists at RealClimate.org. [8], [9]

May 16 - 18, 2010

McIntyre was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change. [10]

December, 2009

McIntyre has been accused of "quote mining" material from the stolen CRU emails in an attempt to imply that the IPCC was hiding information. [11], [12]

November, 2009

Steve McIntyre, through his website ClimateAudit.org, was one of the first people to receive an anonymous link to the original leaked data from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.

McIntyre had been in contact with Paul Dennis, who was questioned by police investigating the theft of climate data. Dennis insisted that "I did not leak any files, data, emails or any other material. I have no idea how the files were released or who was behind it," although he had been in contact with McIntyre at the time.

MrDennis said he emailed Mr McIntyre to alert him to a "departmental email saying that emails and files were hacked" and that "police had copies of my email correspondence with Steve McIntyre and Jeff Id [a pseudonym for the climate sceptic Patrick Condon]. They said it was because I had sent the emails that they were interviewing me." [13]

May, 2005

McIntyre and McKitrick were brought to DC to speak at the National Press Club, introduced by Jeff Kueter and Myron Ebell (full transcipt here.)

That afternoon the pair went to Capitol Hill for a 3pm meeting with undisclosed congressional staffers.

2004

In 2004, Tom Harris produced a film called Climate Catastrophe which featured interviews with McIntyre and McKitrick.  At the time, Harris was working for tobacco-industry PR firm APCO Worldwide.

November, 2003

The George Marshall Institute and Competitive Enterprise Institute have invited and arranged for McIntyre and McKitrick to do speaking events in Washington DC and arranged meetings for the pair with legislators. [14]

In November 2003, the CEI and GMI invited M&M to speak at a Round-Table on Science and Public Policy series where they were introduced by Jeff Kueter of the Marshall Institute and Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. [15]

 Affiliations

• George C. Marshall Institute — Past Round-Table Speaker. [16]

• Trelawney Mining and Exploration Inc — Chairman of the Board (since June 30, 2011). [17], [18]

 Publications

Steve McIntyre and Fraser Institute Senior Fellow Ross McKitrick (together referred to as M & M) have co-authored two papers claiming to debunk the 'hockey stick' graph.  The first was published in Energy and Environment which is not carried in the ISI listing of peer-reviewed journals and whose "peer review process has been widely criticized for allowing the publication of substandard papers". 

Their second paper was published in Geophysical Research Letters after an unsuccessful process of trying to publish in the highly- regarded journal Nature.  The first paper received very little attention outside of climate denier circles and the GRL paper made a minor correction to what was, by then, peripheral to climate science.  However, a high-level PR campaign helped place M&M on the front-page in the National Post followed by a front page story in the Wall Street Journal.

They maintain a full list of their publications as related to the Hockey Stick on a page entitled "The M&M Project."  [19]

Key Publications

• Stephen McIntyre, Ross McKitrick. "Corrections to the Mann et. al. (1998) Proxy Data Base and Northern Hemispheric Average Temperature Series," Energy & Environment, Volume 14, Number 6 (November 2003), p. 751 - 772.

 Resources

1. Stephen McIntyre. "Short Bio: Steven McIntyre" (.doc), University of Guelph, October 25, 2003. Accessed December 15, 2011.

2. Colby Cosh. "Centre of the storm: Colby Cosh profiles the gentle Canadian who has changed the climate science world," Macleans, December 13, 2009.

3. Colby Cosh. "Centre of the storm: Colby Cosh profiles the gentle Canadian who has changed the climate science world," Macleans, December 13, 2009.

4. "Backgrounder for McIntyre and McKitrick 'Hockey Stick Project'" (PDF), University of Guelph, January 27, 2005.

5. "Portrait of a local climate skeptic," The Star, December 12, 2009.

6. "APPENDIX – SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE SUBMISSION" (PDF) S. McIntyre, Feb. 10, 2010. From psu.edu.

7. "The M&M Project: Replication Analysis of the Mann et al. Hockey Stick," University of Guelph. Accessed December 15, 2011.

8. "False Claims by McIntyre and McKitrick regarding the Mann et al. (1998) reconstruction," RealClimate, December 4, 2004.

9. "Rutherford et al 2005 highlights," RealClimate, November 22, 2004.

10. ExxonSecrets Factsheet: Steve McIntyre.

11. "Steve McIntyre, down in the quote mine," Deltoid, December 11, 2009.

12. "McIntyre provides fodder for skeptics," Deep Climate, December 11, 2009.

13. Jonathan Owen and Paul Bignell. "Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers," The Independent, February 7, 2010.

14. Steve McIntyre. "Upcoming Washington Trip," Climate Audit, May 7, 2005.

15. Stephen McIntyre and Dr. Ross McKitrick. "The IPCC, the 'Hockey Stick' Curve, and the Illusion of Experience," The Marshall Institute, November 18, 2003.

16. "Roundtable Speakers," The George C. Marshall Institute. Accessed December 15, 2011.

17. "Management & Directors," Trelawney Mining and Exploration Inc. Accessed December 15, 2011.

18. "Directors & Officers," Profile of Trelawney Mining at Financial Times. Accessed December 15, 2011.

19. "The M&M Project: Replication Analysis of the Mann et al. Hockey Stick," University of Guelph. Accessed December 15, 2011.

20. SourceWatch Profile.

21. McIntyre Response to Michael Mann's critique, October 29, 2003 (PDF). Republished by stephenschneider.com.

22. "CRU Emails: Watching Steve McIntyre Make a Fool of Himself," EnviroLeaks, January 29, 2011.

23. Steve McIntyre's presentation at the Heartland Institute's Fourth Internatinal Conference on Climate Change. YouTube Video. Uploaded by user jrcorsi, May 16, 2010.