CRU Announces Probe: Climate 'Saboteurs' are 'Dangerous'

The folks are University of East Anglia are finally feeling enough heat (pun intended) over the exposure of the junk science at their "prestigious" Climatic Research Unit that today they announced they would investigate whether their esteemed scientists have been churning out bogus data. Still, you'll notice the shift toward blaming skeptics of being politically motivated as the Hopenchangen in Copenhagen event approaches.

A British university said Thursday it would investigate whether scientists at its prestigious Climatic Research Unit fudged data on global warming.

Thousands of pieces of correspondence between some of the world's leading climate scientists were stolen from the unit at the University of East Anglia and leaked to the Internet late last month. Skeptics of man-made global warming say the e-mails are proof that scientists have been conspiring to hide evidence showing that global warming was not as strong as generally believed.

Phil Jones, the director of the unit, stepped down Tuesday pending the result of the investigation.

The university had promised a probe when Jones stepped down, but didn't specify what the investigation would encompass. Thursday's announcement was the first acknowledgment that the research itself would be under scrutiny.

East Anglia said its review will examine the e-mails and other information "to determine whether there is any evidence of the manipulation or suppression of data which is at odds with acceptable scientific practice."

The theft of the e-mails and their publication online — only weeks before the U.N. summit on global warming — has been politically explosive, even if researchers say their content has no bearing on the principles of climate change itself.

There was further criticism following the revelation that the university had thrown out much of the raw temperature data on which its global warming research was based. The university said in a statement last week that the data, stored on paper and magnetic tape, was dumped in the 1980s to save space when the unit moved to a new location.

The release of the data has prompted some lawmakers in Britain to warn that critics of climate change want to wreck any global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions that could be achieved at the Dec. 7-18 U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Ed Miliband, Britain's climate change secretary, on Thursday called those challenging the mainstream scientific view on climate change irresponsible and dangerous.

"We have to beware of the climate saboteurs, the people who want to say this is somehow in doubt, and want to cast aspersions on the whole process," Miliband told reporters.

Heh. Climate saboteurs. Oooh, how nefarious!

The University of East Anglia's investigation comes in addition to a probe by Penn State University, which is also examining e-mails by its own researcher, Michael Mann.

East Anglia said former civil servant Muir Russell would lead the inquiry. Russell said he "has no links to either the university or the climate science community."

The university has asked that the review be completed by spring 2010.

I wonder whether when this "independent" study is released whether they'll allow it to be peer-reviewed?

Noted climatologist Al Gore was unavailable for comment.

While this is huge news int he UK, the American media still remains largely silent, lamely claiming so new-found ethical excuse because these e-mails were leaked. They didn't seem to mind running with Sarah Palin's hacked emails last year, nor did they care back in the mid-90s when Newt Gingrich's conversations were illegally taped by Democrat operatives.

Let's suppose there was an email chain suggesting Bush officials deliberately lied about WMD in Iraq. Would the media ignore them and would Democrats accuse a leaker of being a saboteur? Or would the leaker be hailed as a courageous national hero and feted far and wide?

You know the answer.