ClimateGate update

From NRO, courtesy of Iain Murray

 

All of the spin and hand-waving distracts from the three main elements of the Climategate scandal:

 

1. The data were manipulated to hide a decline in recent temperatures, meaning that we cannot be sure that the paleoclimatological record shows that the recent warming was in any way unusual. This is separate from the issue of whether or not it has been warming or cooling, which is a distraction from what Climategate tells us.

 

2. There was a concerted effort to subvert the peer-review process of journals that might publish "skeptical" articles (and thereby undermine the "consensus" argument).

 

3. There was an organized attempt to circumvent or obstruct the legal requirements of the UK's Freedom of Information Act 2000, which appears on its face to rise to the level of criminality.

 

In addition, there have been attempts to muddy the waters with assertions that data were publicly available all along (ha!) and the insinuation that anyone using "stolen" emails is somehow more immoral than the perpetrators of the three frauds outlined above. I call this latter defense the Spycatcher Gambit, as those who use it seem to believe that if they can just suppress the emails as stolen, the problem will go away.