Mote, upset that Albright was broadly distributing e-mails about the issue, last week told Albright that he would have to let Mote preview any e-mails before sending them out, if he was tying his work to the state climatologist's office.

Mote's position as the state climatologist is a volunteer job that doesn't carry any official recognition or rules. Mote agreed to do the job several years ago, and his colleagues accepted it. The office collects and disseminates climate information and advises the state on climate-related issues.

When Albright refused Mote's ultimatum, Mote barred him from associating himself with the state climatologist's office.

Mote said Albright was sending out messages showing just his side of the story, and airing an analysis that hadn't gone through proper quality checks. As a representative of the climatologist's office, there needed to be standards, he said.

"I'm not trying to squelch debate by any means," Mote said.

But Mass said Albright was doing nothing wrong — simply airing his analysis and seeking feedback as he researched further.

"In all my years of doing science, I've never seen this sort of gag-order approach to doing science," he said.

Meanwhile, Nickels' office has switched to using the 30 percent figure announced by Hartmann, the department chair.

"Obviously we're going to use whatever number the scientists at UW say is accurate," Nickels spokesman Marty McOmber said.

I'm taking a "Wait and see" stance on the whole global warming thing.  Science of this type isn't exact and obviously will change.  Do we need to clean up our act?  Sure, it won't hurt that much and is typically better for us in the long run.  Is it the end of the world?  I really doubt it.

Update: There's a Danish Scientist who is looking at Global Warming correctly.  Here's something he said that I agree with:

"It is impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of Earth," said Andresen, an expert on thermodynamics. "A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system. Furthermore, the climate is not governed by a single temperature. Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. which make up the climate".

He says the currently used method of determining the global temperature -- and any conclusion drawn from it -- is more political than scientific.

The site has an invalid title to the story as well.  No where does he say Global Warming is a myth.  At least not in any quotes they provide.