Taking Liberties
December 2, 2009 5:00 AM

Fallout Over "ClimateGate" Data Leak Grows

By
Declan McCullagh
Topics
Environment
(AP Photo )
Ripples created by the disclosure of global warming files now being called "ClimateGate" continue to spread, with congressional attention growing and the head of a prominent climate change group stepping aside.

Phil Jones, the head of the Climactic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, said on Tuesday that he will relinquish his post while the U.K. school conducts an investigation into allegations of scientific and professional misconduct.

Jones' announcement comes as he and his allies, who published some of the foundational data used to support the claim that global warming exists, have been pummeled by waves of criticism. As CBSNews.com reported last week, the leaked files show that prominent scientists were so wedded to theories of man-made global warming that they ridiculed dissenters who asked for copies of their data, plotted how to keep researchers who reached different conclusions from publishing, and concealed apparently buggy computer code from being disclosed under the Freedom of Information law.

The reverberations have extended beyond the campus of the University of East Anglia and the CRU. E-mail messages from Michael Mann, a professor in the meteorology department at Penn State University who has argued that mankind is threatening "entire ecosystems with extinction in the decades ahead if we continue to burn fossil fuels at current rates," appeared in the leaked files. Now Penn State has opened an investigation into Mann's work, and the U.K.'s weather agency has been forced on the defensive as well.

Some mainstream academics working in the area have distanced themselves from Mann, Jones, and other researchers whose correspondence has drawn allegations of impropriety. Aynsley Kellow, a professor at the University of Tasmania who was an expert reviewer for a U.N. global warming report, told ABC Radio there was evidence of a "willingness to manipulate raw data to suit predetermined results, you've got a resistance to any notion of transparency, an active resistance to freedom of information requests or quite reasonable requests from scientists to have a look at data so that it can be verified."

Hans von Storch, director of the Director of Institute for Coastal Research who was assailed by Mann in one e-mail message, calls the CRU axis a "cartel" and suggests that Jones and others avoid reviewing papers. A colleague, Eduardo Zorita, went further and said Mann and his allies "should be barred" from future United Nations proceedings and warned that "the scientific debate has been in many instances hijacked to advance other agendas."

With the Copenhagen summit just days away, the leaked files have extruded themselves into the political fray in Washington, D.C. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday that he believes "climate change is happening" and is not "in dispute anymore," while Republican Senator James Inhofe called for "Climategate" hearings.

To be sure, many -- perhaps even most -- climate scientists still seem to agree that the evidence for global warming is substantial. Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, calls it "overwhelming." Thomas Crowley, professor of geosciences at the University of Edinburgh, told the Washington Post that the CRU-leaked-files episode "reflects badly on the people who are so desperate to discredit global warming." (That would come as a surprise to MIT's Richard Lindzen, who wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week stressing the unsettled state of climate science.)

Look for the topic to come up at a previously-scheduled hearing Wednesday morning convened by the U.S. Congress's select committee on global warming. Two supporters of the theory of man-made global warming -- including NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, who has called for immediate government action -- are set to testify. Republicans surely have their questions already written down.

The reason the East Anglia data matter is that computer models have been erected upon them, which have been incorporated into governmental and U.N. reports, which in turn have become the basis for actual and proposed government policies. So all this amounts to a prelude: the important questions domestically are whether the Senate approves the cap and trade bill next year and what happens with the EPA's efforts to regulate carbon dioxide. Internationally, the question centers on the fate of the Copenhagen summit.

Even before the massive East Anglia document leak, the odds of an agreement being reached at Copenhagen appear to have been narrowing. Throw in a Fox News report about the U.N. and global governance and some black YouTube humor, and it looks like climate change skeptics have finally found their voice. And scientists and politicians endorsing dramatic limits on economic growth to limit carbon dioxide have been reminded where the burden of proof properly lies.

Update 4:42 p.m. ET: Check out a followup story, titled "Democrats: 'ClimateGate' Leak A Non-Scandal," which I wrote this afternoon. It's about Wednesday's House committee hearing. Also, I fixed the misspelling of Richard Lindzen's name, above. (My apologizes to the good professor.)
Declan McCullagh is a correspondent for CBSNews.com. He can be reached at declan@cbsnews.com and can be followed on Twitter as declanm. You can bookmark Declan's Taking Liberties site here, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

  • Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.

Add a Comment See all 220 Comments
by Paul-Revere December 15, 2009 1:06 AM EST
This Copenhagen Summit has nothing to do with Climate Change or the Environment! It is about countries signing away their Sovereignty, so that they can be under the Communist Dictates of the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund that belongs to the Global Elitists!
The best deal for Canada is no deal and I hope Environment Minister Jim Prentice and Prime Minister Harper, take that attitude seriously as they will find should they come back after having signed away Canada's Sovereignty, or our ability to have a quality lifestyle via draconic Carbon Taxes and Cap and Trade, in this "non -Global Warming Country", that their political careers have ended!

If I were Jim Prentice,I would just tell the truth and state Canadian's do not believe in the Carbon Emission Climate Change and on top of that it has been found - not in a small way that, the Scientific Data has been Severely Comprimised in many various actions, therefore until new true Scientific Data has been brought forward over time proven methods with honest Scientific Data brought forward!

Until that time Canada sees no way to put forward or provide funds or ratify or sign the Copenhagen Treaty. This deal is Null and Void!

Request that PM Harper DOES NOT sign the Copenhagen Treaty, thereby causing Canadians to lose their Sovereignty and Freedom, email the PM at: pm@pm.gc.ca

Sign the petition to protest the Inaccurate Science measurements that are being used to base the Copenhagen Treaty off of: http://www.gopetition.com/online/32485.html

I will say no more except you will be shocked by what you will hear in this main stream radio clip below!

http://2gb.com.au/index2.php?option=com_newsmanager&task=view&id=4998

Check out what Government is doing behind your back at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU
Reply to this comment
by Paul-Revere December 11, 2009 11:50 PM EST
Check out the Copenhagen Document leaks, this knowledge may save your life! Do what you can with your Government Reps in your country to have these infringements on your life eliminated! You will literally be fighting for your and your family?s existence, Click the videos below:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAqqAnUxACY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94KH-WMZuw0

Request that PM Harper doesn't sign the Copenhagen Treaty, thereby causing Canadians to lose their Sovereignty and Freedom, email the PM at: pm@pm.gc.ca

Reality = mass of fradulent bastards in effort to steal from citizens of the world, while they do not realize they are in a mass Dictatorship Society! Lock and Load Folks, Protest and raise utter hell on Earth like the NWO thought they would do! What have we got to lose?
Reply to this comment
by djaymick December 8, 2009 4:43 PM EST
If the Democrats think it's not a scandal, then ask them to produce the raw data. They can't. It's gone. Destroyed. This news broke days after the emails went public. Did they mention that above?
Reply to this comment
by oltxgal December 5, 2009 3:32 PM EST
Pay attention! when KSM and his 9/11 co-conspirators arrive in New York for trial, media is likely to abandon Tiger and Max Baccus's girlfriend, and go wall to wall with coverage of the federal court trial of these animals. No one will be watching or reporting on Congress or the Administration.... or the juicy special interest nuggets they slide into the fat folds of whatever legislation get's pushed through and, of course, signed into law.

This trial will take place, be decided, and go away.... the lasting effects of massive healthcare and energy legislation will be with us for generations. Watch who supports auditing of the FED! Don't trust the vipers on the Hill for one moment! Don't depend on domestic media to cover complex, critical issues, when there's a more marketable, sleezy, story breaking!
Reply to this comment
by oltxgal December 5, 2009 3:12 PM EST
Blows me away that most American media is as late to this story, as it was to ACORN, which only involved a couple of hundred billion taxpayer dollars.... a paltry sum when compared to GW/CC legislation, both enacted and Cap and Trade,under consideration.... based on bogus, junk science! May the discrediting of this theory lead to the unchaining of vast energy resources of the United States... the final crushing of the Cap and Trade scam, and global economic recovery! The European and Australian press, as well as the blogosphere are all over it!

Love how GW/CC "deniers" were equated with "flat earthers". Every citizen values clean water, air, as free as possible from particulate pollution, but not buying into CO2 (a gas necessary to all life on earth) as a pollutant, lined you out of the conversation as an Earth hater. The exposed emails prove the utter dishonesty, intentional misrepresentation of data and questionable methods.

Anyone notice that pompous fool, Gore, cancelled his appearance in Copenhagen.... or his running away from questioners at a recent book signing... or his pathetic testimony to Congress. He's only one of the crooks involved in this multitrillion dollar hoax! Heads need to roll... top to bottom! Academia, Congress, EPA, Interior Dept, Energy Dept, Agriculture Dept, "Big Green" industry conspirators.... GE, Goldman Sachs, Citi... all those poised to capitalize royally on the scam!

All Global Warming/Climate Change based subsidies and initiatives need to be frozen, pending thorough INDEPENDENT investigation.

One wonders what nitwittery will come out of Copenhagen, or if Obama will snap that the "party is OVER", and the American people will not stand for one nickel of obligation to further this scheme. It's NEVER been about "saving the planet"... it's all about power, control, and a mountain of MONEY!
Reply to this comment
by lakota2012 December 5, 2009 1:06 PM EST
Global Predictions

The quasi-regularity of some natural climate forcing mechanisms, combined with knowledge of human-made forcings, allows projection of near-term global temperature trends with reasonably high confidence. Prediction for a specific year is a bit hazardous, as evidenced by an incorrect prediction of record global warmth made by the British climate analysis group for 2007. Such speculations are useful, as they draw attention to the mechanisms, and allow testing of understanding. Presumably part of the basis for their prediction was an assumption of a continued warming contribution from the 2006 El Niņo. However, evidence of El Niņo warmth disappeared very early in 2007.

Solar irradiance will still be on or near its flat-bottomed minimum in 2008. Temperature tendency associated with the solar cycle, because of the Earth's thermal inertia, has its minimum delayed by almost a quarter cycle, i.e., about two years. Thus solar change should not contribute significantly to temperature change in 2008.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/
Reply to this comment
by blazer037 December 5, 2009 4:00 PM EST
Not sure I'd quote NASA - they're going to be sued for failing to provide documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act for three years.

http://spectator.org/blog/2009/11/24/climate-gate-development-cei-f

Sounds a lot like Climate Gate II. This is what happens when governments give huge amounts of money for scientific research. People tend to not want to lose their income. NASA isn't immune.
by lakota2012 December 5, 2009 10:57 AM EST
by patriciaohio:
==============



Instead of parroting the usual mantra from rushbo/beck/drudge, why don't you do yourself a favor and research real scientific information?



Summary

The Southern Oscillation and the solar cycle have significant effects on year-to-year global temperature change. Because both of these natural effects were in their cool phases in 2007, the unusual warmth of 2007 is all the more notable. It is apparent that there is no letup in the steep global warming trend of the past 30 years (see 5-year mean curve in Figure 1a).

"Global warming stopped in 1998," has become a recent mantra of those who wish to deny the reality of human-caused global warming. The continued rapid increase of the five-year running mean temperature exposes this assertion as nonsense. In reality, global temperature jumped two standard deviations above the trend line in 1998 because the "El Niņo of the century" coincided with the calendar year, but there has been no lessening of the underlying warming trend.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/
Reply to this comment
by lakota2012 December 5, 2009 10:42 AM EST
by rbichamp:
We've had cooling for the last decade.
================================





Since you have already admitted to NOT being a scientist, and actually appear to be very science-challenged, which of the many delusional rightwad talking heads gave you that wrong information?

Instead of just parroting the usual rushbo/beck/drudge propaganda, try a little research into La Nina and El Nino effects while at the minimum solar irradiance between Solar Cycles 23 and 24.




GISS Surface Temperature Analysis

Global Temperature Trends: 2007 Summation

The year 2007 tied for second warmest in the period of instrumental data, behind the record warmth of 2005, in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) analysis. 2007 tied 1998, which had leapt a remarkable 0.2°C above the prior record with the help of the "El Niņo of the century". The unusual warmth in 2007 is noteworthy because it occurs at a time when solar irradiance is at a minimum and the equatorial Pacific Ocean is in the cool phase of its natural El Niņo-La Niņa cycle.

-------

Arctic Warmth

The map reveals that the greatest warming has been in the Arctic and neighboring high latitude regions. Polar amplification is an expected characteristic of global warming, as the loss of ice and snow engenders a positive feedback via increased absorption of sunlight. The large Arctic warm anomaly of 2007 is consistent with observed record low Arctic sea ice cover in September 2007.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/
Reply to this comment
by Kewlbreeze12 December 7, 2009 11:31 AM EST
lakota2012 you amaze me. You spew hate out with each email against anyone who does agree with your "sky is falling" nonesense. You spew more false data from government sources which have been shown to be twisting the data to serve their own greed.

When you call us skeptics names - you do not bolster your position. You show your inability to deal with the reality of what is going on around you. AGW is done - it is over. you cannot scream the "sky is falling" anymore and quote government studies - the public is not buying it guy- you lost.

We do not have to be climate scientist to understand lies, liars and scandal....we simply have to read. You do not hold any moral high ground anymore - when you lie - you lose that. You lost.

Give it up man. Try to keep up. Government agencies lie, are full of liars and have always been that way. Grow up.

Please stop insulting people on this blog by calling them names. You have no idea where their data or ideas come from and calling them BECK/RUSH morons - or whatever your twisted mind dreams up - only makes you look more the fool. Hate - and you spew hate out with every email - will not win an argument.

The skeptics of AGW are not evil because we are not "science minded". You "climate specialist" want to take my money away, destroy capitalism and put me into a life style akin to a 7th century monk. In order to do that - you have to have real evidence the "sky is falling" ....you do not have that. So do not get angry at us skeptics when we question you. We have the right to do that - you do not have the right to overturn my entire lifestyle based on science that at best is weak and at the most criminal.

So stop whining and stop spewing government studies like they are the Gospel.
Cheers
AGW is a hoax - get over it. We all know now.
by lakota2012 December 5, 2009 10:11 AM EST
by rbichamp:
Just think if a group of scientist that were in power declared that the earth is getting cleaner and cleaner as we burn more CO2.
==============================================





by lakota2012:
Hey einstein.....CO2 does not burn.....it's an emission of burning fossil fuels or respiration.
============================================






by rbichamp:
Liberals can't argue the facts so they need to try to change the topic.

I don't claim to be a scientist....
==============================================






NO, the topic is certainly CO2, and it is past evident that you certainly are science-challenged as almost all republiCONS!

Trying to make some e-mails into a "smoking gun," when observing the huge changes globally is all it takes to see how global warming is accelerating due to mankind's contributions and GOP footdragging.

Sorry, but the rushbo/beck/drudge parrots get more delusional by the day, and just continue to show their lack of knowledge of the facts!
Reply to this comment
by guest173 December 5, 2009 4:32 AM EST
I am pro-earth, pro-environment, clean air, pro-science, pro-education, but as a christian I am not overly concerned about global warming (and global cooling as in the past). Genesis 8:22 says "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, COLD AND HEAT, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." I know that doesn't comfort most people but at least the Bible reassures not to worry about that really. We should be responsible though and not bring pollution to ourselves.
Reply to this comment
by guest173 December 5, 2009 4:37 AM EST
I think (and this climategate also proves it), I think that part of the snow sports tourism industry over in Europe, who heavily propound climate change aka global warming, are trying to perhaps manipulate the weather to remain cold as much as possible even unnaturally for their sports businesses. I am not at all anti-climate change, but I don't think the motives are as pure as some try to make it, like it is just science, no it isn't, there are businesses behind this, and this climategate is showing that secret dark side.
by lakota2012 December 5, 2009 1:11 PM EST
by guest173:
"I am pro-earth, pro-environment, clean air, pro-science, pro-education, but as a christian I am not overly concerned about global warming"
=========================================






I'm sure....besides, you're probably packing for the RAPTURE anyway!
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