I had almost put Phil Jones in the drawer as retired or banished after his embarrassments, but he is still playing and now he makes some news.
Dante specified a special place in hell for Falsifiers. Alchemists he called them. The Eighth Circle of the Inferno.
Hell only has nine circles in Dante’s story. I think liars and deceivers get such a heavy punishment from Dante because societies are built on honesty. Deceit damages human relations and destroys trust, close and far apart. Humans need honesty as the glue that promotes civility and civilization. Anarchy and decline is brought on by lies and deception.
Phil Jones 2012 video: Talks about adjusting SST data up ~.3-.5C after WWII
From the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri The Inferno Canto XXIX translated by John Ciardi, published by New American Library
Falsifiers are destined for Circle Eight of Hell along with those who bear false witness.
“falsifiers are punished by afflictions of every sense: by darkness, stench, thirst, filth, loathsome diseases and shrieking din. Some of them, moreover, run ravening through the pit tearing others to pieces. Just as in life they corrupted society by their falsifications, so in death these sinners are subjected to a sum of corruptions. In one sense they figure forth what society would be if all falsifiers succeeded–a place where the senses are in affliction(since falsification deceives the senses) rather than a guide,where even the body has no honesty and where some lie prostrate while others run ravening to prey upon them.”