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Andrew William Montford is a British writer and editor who maintains Bishop Hill, a blog for climate-change sceptics. He is the author of The Hockey Stick Illusion (2010).

Background

Montford graduated from the University of St Andrews with a degree in chemistry, and became a chartered accountant before moving into science publishing. In 2004, he helped to set up Anglosphere, which provides editing services to publishers and business clients.

Views on climate change

Bishop Hill

Montford founded Bishop Hill on November 21, 2006, at first focusing on British politics in general. He describes it as one of the main websites for global warming sceptics in the UK. Matt Ridley writes in The Spectator that Montford became interested in climate change in 2005 after reading a post by blogger Tim Worstall, who was in turn writing about the work of Stephen McIntyre, the editor of the blog Climate Audit. Montford's layperson's approach to the Hockey Stick debate has received a number of favourable comments, including from The Spectator, specifically his summaries of posts from Climate Audit, which he called "Caspar And The Jesus Paper" and "The Yamal Implosion".

Bishop Hill has come to public attention several times. In November 2009, journalist James Delingpole credited Bishop Hill with reporting the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs funding of the Climate Outreach and Information Network charity to the tune of £700,000 over two years. In February 2010, the Daily Mail reported that Paul Dennis, a British climate scientist, had posted an account on Bishop Hill of Dennis's interview with police investigating the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy ("Climategate")—the unauthorized release of e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit. Also in February 2010, Philip Campbell, the editor-in-chief of Nature, resigned from the Independent Climate Change Email Review—an investigation set up by a House of Commons committee to look into "Climategate"—after Bishop Hill and Channel 4 News drew attention to an interview Campbell had given in 2009 to China Radio International, in which he said there was no evidence the scientists had engaged in a coverup.

The Hockey Stick Illusion

Montford's The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science was published in January 2010 by Stacey International. Montford examines the history of the "hockey stick graph" of global temperatures for the last 1000 years, and what he argues is the unraveling of the graph. He discusses the peer review process and Stephen McIntyre's efforts to obtain the data behind the graph. The last few chapters examine "Climategate". The book has received a number of positive reviews, including from Matt Ridley in The Spectator and Christopher Booker in The Daily Telegraph.

Media appearances

Montford has been interviewed a number of times about the "Climategate" controversy. Britain's Channel 4 asked him in March 2010 to look at some of the questions Phil Jones might be asked during the parliamentary inquiry into the controversy. Montford wrote in The Times Higher Education supplement that the email conversations at the heart of "Climategate" "suggest a campaign to nobble journals, marginalise climate-change sceptics and withhold data from other researchers."

He was interviewed in April 2010 by Dennis Prager, an American radio talk show host, and during the same month participated in a live web-debate hosted by The Times; the debate also featured Times environment editor Ben Webster and Bob Ward of the London School of Economics's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Montford alleged in the debate that the investigations into the leaking of the e-mails was compromised by "highly questionable memberships." He also questioned the appointment of Lord Oxburgh to the panel, writing that Oxburgh has a "direct financial interest in the outcome of his inquiry."

In an interview with Bruce Robbins in The Courier Montford said, "I believe that CO2, other things being equal, will make the planet warmer. The six million dollar question is how much warmer. I'm less of a sceptic than people think. My gut feeling is still sceptical but I don't believe it's beyond the realms of possibility that the AGW hypothesis might be correct. It's more the case that we don't know and I haven't seen anything credible to persuade me there's a problem."

See also

• Global warming controversy

References

1. ^
   • Memorandum submitted by Andrew Montford, The disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, Science and Technology Committee, Session 2009-10, www.publications.parliament.uk, accessed May 7, 2010;
   • Andrew W. Montford, Anglosphere, accessed May 7, 2010;
   • Montford, Andrew. The Hockey Stick Illusion. Stacey International, 2010, back cover.
2. ^ Ridley, Matt. "The Global Warming Guerrillas", The Spectator, February 3, 2010.
3. Webster, Ben. Oxburgh, the climate science peer, ‘has a conflict of interest’", The Times, March 23, 2010.
4. Booker, Christopher. "A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC", The Daily Telegraph, February 27, 2010.
5. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, accessed May 7, 2010; Andrew W Montford, Anglosphere, accessed May 7, 2010.
6. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. "Memorandum submitted by Andrew Montford", The disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, Session 2009-2010, www.publications.parliament.uk, retrieved 6 May 2010.
7. Ridley, Matt. "The Global Warming Guerrillas", The Spectator, February 3, 2010; Montford, Andrew. "Casper and the Jesus paper", Bishop Hill blog, August 11, 2008, and "The Yamal implosion", Bishop Hill blog, September 29, 2009, accessed May 7, 2010.
8. Delingpole, James. "Climategate: how they all squirmed", a Daily Telegraph blog, 29 November 2009.
9. Daily Mail. "Police question global warming 'sceptic' scientist over 'Climategate' email leak", 5 February 2010. The Daily Mail writes: "It is understood Mr Dennis has been instructed not to talk to the media, but he posted his account of the interview on a British website run by climate change sceptic Andrew Montford."
10. Batty, David and Adam, David. "Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned", The Guardian, 12 February 2010.
11. Clarke, Tom. "'Climate-gate' review member resigns", Channel 4 News, 11 February 2010.
12. Ridley, Matt. The case against the hockey stick, Prospect, March 20, 2010; Gilder, George. George Gilder Hails "The Hockey Stick Illusion" on the Science Scandal of Global Warming, Discovery News, February 25, 2010; Booker, Christopher. A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC, The Daily Telegraph, April 03 2010.
13. Questions for Climategate boss facing MPs, Channel 4, March 1, 2010.
14. Montford, Andrew. "Heated discussions", The Times, May 1, 2010.
15. Dennis talks to AW Montford, Dennisprager.com, April 22, 2010, accessed May 7, 2010.
16. "Live debate: can we trust the outcome of the climategate inquiry?". The Times Online. 14 April 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
17. Robbins, Bruce (02.04.10). "Bishop Hill: the blogger putting climate science to test". The Courier. The Courier. Retrieved 25 May 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

• British accountants
• Living people