[StBernard] The End of The Radical Green Agenda?

[Westley Annis]

Wednesday November 25th, 2009

The story was just breaking as we finished the newsletter last week.  We caught a glimpse of a headline of a story regarding some hacked emails that seemed to imply something shady was going on with some of the scientists who have supported the man-made theory of global warming.  We posted a link in the top headlines and decided we'd wait to see if the story developed further.

It did.


>From the Wall Street Journal <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125883405294859215.html> :


The scientific community is buzzing over thousands of emails and documents -- posted on the Internet last week after being hacked from a prominent climate-change research center -- that some say raise ethical questions about a group of scientists who contend humans are responsible for global warming.

The correspondence between dozens of climate-change researchers, including many in the U.S., illustrates bitter feelings among those who believe human activities cause global warming toward rivals who argue that the link between humans and climate change remains uncertain.

Some emails also refer to efforts by scientists who believe man is causing global warming to exclude contrary views from important scientific publications.

"This is horrible," said Pat Michaels, a climate scientist at the Cato Institute in Washington who is mentioned negatively in the emails. "This is what everyone feared. Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult for anyone who does not view global warming as an end-of-the-world issue to publish papers. This isn't questionable practice, this is unethical."

In all, more than 1,000 emails and more than 2,000 other documents were stolen Thursday from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University in the U.K. The identity of the hackers isn't certain, but the files were posted on a Russian file-sharing server late Thursday, and university officials confirmed over the weekend that their computer had been attacked and said the documents appeared to be genuine.

The emails reveal efforts by the pro-global warming scientists to falsify temperature data by "hiding the decline <http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikaqlFpp9jCRHWN0zNuamKXfyeMgD9C441LG0> " in global temperatures, apply pressure to scientific journals to exclude any studies <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/>  that cast doubt upon the science of global warming, and illegally delete information <http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/11/024996.php>  requested under the Freedom of Information Act.  The Washington Times <http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/24/hiding-evidence-of-global-cooling/> , in an editorial, states it bluntly:

The content of these e-mails raises extremely serious questions that could end the academic careers of many prominent professors. Academics who have purposely hidden data, destroyed information and doctored their results have committed scientific fraud. We can only hope respected academic institutions such as Pennsylvania State University, the University of Arizona and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst conduct proper investigative inquiries.

Most important, however, these revelations of fudged science should have a cooling effect on global-warming hysteria and the panicked policies that are being pushed forward to address the unproven theory.

Senator James Inhofe is rightly calling for an investigation <http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2188feb3-802a-23ad-4de4-3fbc0a92e126&Issue_id>  into the emails.  Unsurprisingly, the President is ignoring the story, and planning to attend <http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5AO2F120091125>  a U.N. meeting on Climate Change.

Here is a link <http://www.eastangliaemails.com/index.php>  to every single one of the emails.  God Bless those of you with the fortitude to look through all of them.

If you're like us, you'll prefer this link <http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2009/11/20/climate-cuttings-33.html> , which highlights the most interesting of the emails.  And this video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEiLgbBGKVk&feature=player_embedded>  is a smart and funny (and musical) take on the story.

Pajama Media goes one better, and gives us the "Three Things You Absolutely Must Know About Climategate <http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/three-things-you-absolutely-must-know-about-climategate/2/> " (As an aside, we refuse to call this story "Climategate."  The tendency of the political commentariat to label anything with even the scent of scandal "____gate" drives us up a wall!)

Even the mainstream media, filled with Global Warming sympathizers and Goracles, realizes this is a huge story.  Here's coverage from The Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/21/AR2009112102186.html> , the BBC <http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulhudson/2009/11/climategate-what-next.shtml>  (which apparently sat on the story <http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulhudson/2009/11/climategate-cru-hacked-into-an.shtml>  for a month), and even (begrudgingly we're sure) The New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/21climate.html?hp> .

Here's a link <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017912/climategate-how-they-all-squirmed/>  to a collection of responses from members of the Radical Green Agenda.  Most are predictably thick-skulled, but a few will surprise you.

In the end, what do these emails really mean?  Simply put, that the forces of the Radical Green Agenda seem to have played loose and fast with the facts, used anti-scientific tricks to potentially falsify data, and colluded to suppress scientific studies which came to a different conclusion from their own.  If that's true, it means they and their supporters, in a foolhardy effort to either A) boost their own sense of self-importance, or B) boost their own bank accounts, have lied to themselves, to each other, to the media, and to the American people and the people of the world.  Oh, and one more thing.

It means the science isn't settled.  That is, if there was ever science at all.

Quote of the Week

"I tried hard to balance the needs of the science and the IPCC, which were not always the same."
-Keith Briffa <http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=4454&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimaterealistsNewsBlog+%28ClimateRealists+News+Blog%29> , lead scientist on the IPCC.

Most Egregious Claim of the Week

The most egregious claim of the week isn't a claim at all, but rather the deafening silence from the major television networks when it comes to this story.  NBC, CBS and ABC have all ignored this consensus shattering story.  So what did they cover instead?  Well, as this hilarious Newsbusters <http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/11/25/climategate-ignored-again-broadcast-nets-go-state-dinner-menu-sea-lions-p>  article shows, CBS decided to devote time to the sleeping location of a 500 pound sea lion, and NBC took their sweet time describing the menu at the White House State Dinner.

Neither of those stories can hold a candle to this pulitzer worthy piece of journalism from ABC News:  Pete, the Orphaned Moose.

"Finally tonight, the battle to save a moose," ABC "World News" anchor Charles Gibson said. "It's a story that might go unnoticed, except this battle to save this moose, his name is Pete, has come something of a cause celeb in Vermont. So ABC's John Berman went up north to check it out."

We hope he brought his coat.  Vermont can get pretty cold in November.

-Patrick Gallagher, Editor

Top Headlines This Week 

*	Obama to Offer Firm Pledge on Emissions Cuts in Copenhagen <http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/obama-will-go-to-copenhagen/?hp> 
*	Global Carbon Dioxide Levels Rise, Temperature Does Not <http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/tech-mainmenu-30/environment/2400-global-carbon-dioxide-levels-rise-temperature-does-not> 
*	States Mull Own Climate Plans Amid Federal Delay <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a7PtTzqHVKcQ> 
*	Icebergs Head from Antactica to New Zealand <http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsr62jU7bnmBi2Z-iKs_Mbgy-9rQD9C5TPD80> 
*	The Twelve C's of Climate Alarmism <http://spectator.org/archives/2009/11/23/the-12-cs-of-climate-alarmism>