Raymond S. Bradley, a climatologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, claims that statistician Edward Wegman of George Mason University plagiarized from his textbook in a 2006 congressional report that undermined warnings of global warming. A committee investigating the allegations at George Mason University has yet to comment, and Mr. Wegman denies the plagiarism charges that were first reported by Deepclimate.org.
“I’m not an expert on plagiarism, but it’s pretty clear that the text was lifted almost word for word out of my book,” said Mr. Bradley, who wants the report to be removed from the Congressional Record.
Bradley claims that the 91-page Wegman report has 35 pages of plagiarized material of which 2.5 pages were taken from his textbook “Paleoclimatology Reconstructing Climates of the Quaternary” and the other borrowed material came from Wikipedia, textbooks, and articles. Wegman’s report, which had been requested by Rep. Joe Barton (R) of Texas, disputes claims made in Bradley’s textbook and by other climate experts that the past century was the warmest in 1,000 years.
“So they not only lifted parts of my book, they also altered a few keywords to make it less definite,” says Bradley.
