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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
WaPo: Climate Schemers 'Under Attack' By Skeptics Who Dare to Question
2009-11-24
The release of internal emails from Britain's University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit shows scientists plotting to ostracize and marginalize other researchers who question their assumptions on anthropogenic global warming. Yet the Washington Post finds that such a strategy is but a natural reaction to attacks on these scientists by climate skeptics.

The Post characterizes the CRU, and the larger circle of scientists pushing the global warming theory, as "an intellectual circle that appears to feel very much under attack." Readers must be forgiven for their confusion about who exactly is being attacked, as the Post goes on to detail CRU communications calling for a boycott of academic journals that publish articles critical of the supposed "consensus" on global warming. (Noel Sheppard reported on these and other incendiary statements in a Friday post.)

"I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report," CRU director Phil Jones wrote of two skeptical academic works. "Kevin and I will keep them out somehow--even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"
Posted by:Fred

#8  ION WORLD NEWS > FIVE EARTHS TO LIVE LIKE AMERICANS?
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-11-24 23:17  

#7  ...if I create a genetically-modified mouse in my work, I'm required to share that mouse with any qualified investigator who asks for it.

Microsoft? Dell? Garfield?
Posted by: Skunky Glins****   2009-11-24 22:05  

#6  Still not one word printed in the (last remaining)Seattle paper about this data hacking.
Not one word on the Seattl-based MSM radio today either.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2009-11-24 21:24  

#5  Internal source is 99% likely

BBC sat on climate fraud for a month
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2009-11-24 12:56  

#4  What if the data from the CRU came from an internal sourse, a whistleblower (or whistle-emailer),

thus not so much an IT issue

if the CRU fired the whistleblower, that could put a new layer of outrage on this
Posted by: lord garth   2009-11-24 11:47  

#3  One more thing: scientists who hide, destroy or alter data have committed fraud. That's an immediate firing offense in every university I know. Here in the US, scientific fraud not only gets you fired but gets you black-listed by the NIH and NSF so that you can't get any more grants (usually a five year term, but try getting a job with that in your curriculum vitae).

The scientists involved, and very likely their academic units and deans, are very likely now in full damage-control mode. They'll obfuscate, deny and hand-wave. But if one proves fraud to the satisfaction of an academic review committee they'll be gone.
Posted by: Steve White   2009-11-24 11:07  

#2  I don't know how it works in the UK, but in federally funded biomedical research in the US, grantees are required to have, in their applications, a "resource sharing plan" that guarantees that they will share the data they generate and outlines how they will do so.

As but one example, if I create a genetically-modified mouse in my work, I'm required to share that mouse with any qualified investigator who asks for it.

I don't know how the NSF, NOAA, and NASA do it (they're the ones who fund climate research in the US). I don't know how they do it in the UK. But I'd be surprised if there wasn't a rule that mandated data and resource sharing.
Posted by: Steve White   2009-11-24 09:46  

#1  The son of a friend is a PhD student at UEA and is keeping me informed of the state of affairs there. (He's not in the CRU)

Apparently the school is going to investigate big time and heads will roll. Unfortunately he's not sure if the heads will be CRU or IT for letting it happen.

Blaming this on IT would be a great bait&switch move no?
Posted by: AlanC   2009-11-24 09:06  

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