As our local baseball broadcaster would say, "My, oh my!"

It appears that one of the main cornerstones for the enviro-wacko claims for global warming is wrong. The data have been fudged.

"'Corrections to the Mann et al (1998) Proxy Data Base and Northern Hemisphere Average Temperature Series' Energy and Environment 14(6) 751-772.
Abstract: The data set of proxies of past climate used in Mann, Bradley and Hughes (1998, “MBH98” hereafter) for the estimation of temperaturefrom 1400 to 1980 contains collation errors, unjustifiable truncation or extrapolation of source data, obsolete data, geographical location errors, incorrect calculation of principal components and other quality control defects. We detail these errors and defects. We then apply MBH98 methodology to the construction of a Northern Hemisphere average temperature index for the 1400-1980 period, using corrected and updated source data. The major finding is that the values in the early 15th century exceed any values in the 20th century. The particular “hockey stick” shape derived in the MBH98 proxconstruction a temperauret index that decreases slightly between the early 15th century andearly 20th century and then increases dramatically up to 1980 -- is primarily an artefact of poor data handling, obsolete data and incorrect calculation of principal components."