It must be fun over at the RC compound following the release of the CRU e:mails and related data, code and reports. There is ample commentary of all kinds relating to these disclosures, and we don’t intend to discuss them here, other than to explore a little what it all might mean for RC.
As we have already discussed in an earlier post, e:mails from Michael Mann clearly describe RC and its role. Tim Ball expands on RC giving a little more ‘context’ that might be useful for our readers. His article is titled “Climategate; The Supporting Cast – Thought Police Anyone?” and can be viewed in full at http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/17635
An extract follows:
Too Big To Believe
George Monbiot of the Guardian (UK) was among the first mainstream media to express concern. “I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them.” He was reacting to corruption on an unprecedented scale in exposed files from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.
Typically, he was only concerned about being fooled. To his further shame he is now in denial of the extent of the deception. True, the scale and extent appears unbelievable because it uses the deception of the Big Lie – too big to believe. However, I know it’s believable because I watched it develop and grow. Particularly since 1985 when the conference in Villach Austria conjoined the CRU with the fledgling Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Tom Wigley and Phil Jones attended but were already developing the phony climate science Maurice Strong needed to pursue his goal of destroying western economies. For example, in a 1983 article Wigley was convincing climate science of a falsely low pre-industrial level of CO2. Early attempts to challenge what they were doing followed normal academic processes and little interference occurred. For example, a book review I wrote based on the bad science became a Review Editorial In Climatic Change (Volume 35, Number 4 / April, 1997.)
Computer Models and Computer Modelers
The big change came when computer modelers took over climate science. I knew modeling global climate was impossible; apart from the inadequate surface and upper atmosphere database computer capacity was and is still inadequate. At conference after conference I watched modelers bully everybody. Models are the most corrupt part of the CRU and IPCC fiasco, an exposure yet to emerge. They produced the ridiculous ‘predictions’ of disaster used to promote control through fear.
We’ve learned of data manipulation, publication and peer review control, and personal attacks on those who asked questions. Yet to emerge is how they manipulated the computer models to reach a result that was not a simulation of nature but proof that human CO2 was causing global warming and climate change. As the IPCC and its model projections grew in power to dominate global energy policy it drew increasing attention. This grew threatening and triggered the need for a Palace Guard to defend the CRU and the IPCC.
The Goon Squad
A group of scientists established themselves as the goon squad for the gangster bosses at the CRU. Michael Mann and Gavin Schmidt led and quickly earned reputations for nasty and vindictive responses. On December 10, 2004 Schmidt gave the CRU gang a Christmas present: “Colleagues, No doubt some of you share our frustration with the current state of media reporting on the climate change issue. Far too often we see agenda-driven “commentary” on the Internet and in the opinion columns of newspapers crowding out careful analysis. Many of us work hard on educating the public and journalists through lectures, interviews and letters to the editor, but this is often a thankless task. In order to be a little bit more pro-active, a group of us (see below) have recently got together to build a new ‘climate blog’ website: RealClimate.org which will be launched over the next few days:” The group was, Mike Mann – Eric Steig – William Connolley – Stefan Rahmstorf – Ray Bradley – Amy Clement – Rasmus Benestad – William Connolley (sic) – Caspar Ammann.
They’re familiar names to people who got in their way. Now the world should know. Evasiveness pervading the behavior recorded in the CRU emails was present at RealClimate (RC) and beyond. Note that William Connolley is listed twice – a Freudian slip because he was the nastiest and did double duty, but more on him shortly. (Source)
Schmidt elaborates, “The idea is that we working climate scientists should have a place where we can mount a rapid response to supposedly ‘bombshell’ papers that are doing the rounds and give more context to climate related stories or events.” The phrase “working climate scientists” was used frequently and typifies their arrogance. Unless you are one you have no credibility or right to an opinion. It’s similar to their peer review charge and establishes them as the elite.
Modus Operandi Involved Mainstream Media
Activities of these “working climate scientists” were not to answer questions about their work but to divert, distract, ignore and marginalize with lies about people and ideas. Here is a February 9, 2006 email from Michael Mann that gives a flavor of the almost paranoid behavior.
“I see that Science (the journal) has already gone online w/ the new issue, so we put up the RC post. By now, you’ve probably read that nasty McIntyre thing. Apparently, he violated the embargo on his website (I don’t go there personally, but so I’m informed).
Anyway, I wanted you guys to know that you’re free to use RC in any way you think would be helpful. Gavin and I are going to be careful about what comments we screen through, and we’ll be very careful to answer any questions that come up to any extent we can. On the other hand, you might want to visit the thread and post replies yourself. We can hold comments up in the queue and contact you about whether or not you think they should be screened through or not, and if so, any comments you’d like us to include.
You’re also welcome to do a followup guest post, etc. think of RC as a resource that is at your disposal to combat any disinformation put forward by the McIntyres of the world. Just let us know. We’ll use our best discretion to make sure the skeptics don’t get to use the RC comments as a megaphone…”
Mann spread his lies about McIntyre by using Andrew Revkin of the New York Times. As recently as September 29, 2009 he wrote, “those such as McIntyre who operate almost entirely outside of this system are not to be trusted.”
Jones did it when he defended his refusal to answer FOI’s to the administration at the University of East Anglia. The emails from Revkin are disturbing and reveal unhealthy involvement and lack of journalistic integrity. No wonder he blocked use of the Climategate material in the newspaper when it appeared. It was not journalistic integrity it covered his involvement.
Schmidt notes, “This is a strictly volunteer/spare time/personal capacity project and obviously nothing we say there reflects any kind of ‘official’ position.” What hypocrisy. This is the game James Hansen and others play. He is Director of the NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) when it suits and a private citizen when it suits. It’s a duplicity that underlines the politics of their activities.
Tim goes on to discuss the activities of William Connolley at Wikipedia climate pages – fascinating stuff, but not so relevant to us here.
Gavin Schmidt has been busy. For some reason, they seem to be allowing many more posts than they normally would, particularly from those of a sceptical persuasion. The choir is pitching in to help show how wrong and mistaken the sceptical comments are, and Gavin is commenting on very many of the posts.
The tone is typical RC. They and their associates can do no wrong, whereas the sceptics are in the pay of big oil. Anyone who questions the science, or now the e:mails, obviously has an agenda. My view is that they are doing themselves even more harm than they have done before.
The only non-sceptical scientists (and journalists) that will come out of this with any honour will be those who have come out publicly to express their concern for the events/culture/actions revealed by the e:mails. Judith Curry, Eduardo Zorita, Mike Hulme, and George Monbiot are examples. Those who continue to defend the indefensible will I think find that they will bear the consequences.
The internet is a remarkable beast, and it is now so easy to get the real story, even if the MSM is still captive to the “settled science” of the IPCC and “the team”.
A consequence of the new approach at RC re censorship is that we are seeing a lot less complaints about posts being censored at RC. It is also notable that while they are clearly editing posts in a clear effort to “manage” the message, they are now at least indicating where the have edited the text.
Anyhow, we live in interesting times………..
UPDATEIt would appear that RC has already decided that an open moderation policy might not best serve its needs. Numerous comments suggest that the moderation policy has toughened up again (already) with numerous posts being deleted without notice.
