CRU hack

People seem to be missing the real issue in the CRU emails.... To me, the main issue is the frontal attack on the heart of science, which is transparency.

Science works by one person making a claim, and backing it up with the data and methods that they used to make the claim. Other scientists attack the work by (among other things) trying to replicate the first scientist’s work. If they can’t replicate it, it doesn’t stand. So blocking the FOIA allowed Phil Jones to claim that his temperature record (HadCRUT3) was valid science.

This is not just trivial gamesmanship, this is central to the very idea of scientific inquiry. This is an attack on the heart of science, by keeping people who disagree with you from ever checking your work and seeing if your math is correct. Willis Eschenbach

Government propaganda

The University of East Anglia’s webmail server has had a huge number of files hacked. The blogosphere claims that the emails and documents now available on the internet suggest that the Climate Research Unit (CRU) has been manipulating the temperature records so as to support the warming theory and to minimise evidence that shows the fact that the earth has been cooling for some time. The mainstream media has tried hard to ignore this story but some have shown interest: the Mail, a Telegraph blog, Nigel Lawson in the Times and Troy media which considers the hacking just a 'blip', see here. The Guardian won't even discuss any criticism of climate change as it considers it a secular religion and otherwise there is just silence with just the usual odd comment about Armageddon.