What Muller did is consistent with the tactics of global warming denial which is to cast doubt.
They cast doubt where ever they can and however they can.
Muller attempted to cast doubt by making promises. He promised a new aggregation of data sets. He promised new statistical methods.
Each promise reflected the character of the doubt he was attempting to cast.
This is the same strategy that the tobacco industry used to disconnect smoking from lung cancer for decades.
The first attempt to assault the character of the data came from the website ClimateAudit.org where they conducted an 'assay' of the site rules for surface weather stations. Climateaudit.org was the brain child of Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick (sometimes referred to as the M&M Twins)
Anthony Watts followed this up with SurfaceStations.org which rated weather station quality by their compliance to siting rules.
When SurfaceStations.org completed their rating, NOAA took Watts list of highest quality stations alone and found that once trended using the current methods available that the data from those stations deemed 'best' for quality of siting produced a trend by less than one percent from the total station population.
Muller aggregated a multitude of data sources and 'discovered' that global warming actually exists!
The climate science community isn't quite ready to throw laurel leaves at Muller's feet. There is an excellent analysis at RealClimate.org.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2011/10/berkeley-earthquake-called-off/Notes : McIntyre, McKitrick or Watts are not climate scientists, they are BSc mathematics, PhD economics, meteorologist respectively. Muller has a PhD in physics and currently holds a teaching position at UC Berkeley.
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