November 23, 2009

Charles Martin's ClimateGate Primer

If you're still playing catch-up in the smoldering wreckage from the Holy Hand Grenade of hacking detonated in the Hadley CRU, a great place to start is Charlie Martin's succint and link-rich Global WarmingGate: What Does It Mean? Martin lays it out and sums it up with "It appears that the three scandals are:

  • First, a real attempt by a small group of scientists to subvert the peer-review process and suppress dissenting voices. (For another look at this, by a respected climate scientist who was one of the targets, see these posts on Roger Pielke Sr.'s blog.) This is at best massively unethical.
  • Second, a willingness to manipulate the data to make a political case. This is certainly misconduct and possibly scientific fraud. This, if it proves true, should make these scientists subject to strong disciplinary action, even termination of their tenured positions.
  • Third, what gives every appearance of an actual conspiracy to prevent data from being released as required by the Freedom of Information Acts in the US and UK. If this is proven true, that is a federal crime.

"Charlie Martin is a Colorado computer scientist and freelance writer. He holds an MS in Computer Science from Duke University, where he spent six years with the National Biomedical Simulation Resource, Duke University Medical Center. Find him at http://chasrmartin.com, and on his blog at http://explorations.chasrmartin.com."

Posted by Vanderleun at November 23, 2009 1:53 PM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

So far it seems that everyone is assuming this data was "hacked".

I have no evidence, only a gut feeling, that it was not hacked, it was leaked. Someone on the "inside" wants the truth to be known.

Posted by: Clayton in Mississippi at November 23, 2009 4:58 PM

Clayton, you'll notice that I said "apparently hacked." I agree, it's very probably an inside job, at least partly. Although the files appear to have been distributed by someone with significant skillz, so I think the most probable thing is the insider passed info to an outsider.

PS Thanks for the link!

Posted by: Charlie Martin at November 23, 2009 5:31 PM