Climategate: Even the Tree Ring Data Was Fudged

One of the most influential data sets in climate science has been that of CRU climatologist Keith Briffa who, in 2000, published an article using tree ring data from northern Russia to show a dramatic "hockey-stick" increase in temperatures in the late 20th century.

What McIntyre found was astonishing: Briffa's "hockey stick" was created by using data from only 10 trees in 1990 and 5 trees in 1995-1996. Given that tree ring growth can be affected by non-climate factors, such as if a nearby tree is cut down giving the subject tree more hours of sunlight each day, such a small sample size can lead to very large errors.'

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