As some WUWT readers may have learned from reading Climate Audit, an anonymous source deep within Hadley CRU has provided Steve McIntyre a copy of a data file he has been seeking but has had his FOI requests to Hadley seeking the same file, rebuked.
I’ve seen the data. As I posted last night on Climate Audit:
You know, not everyone in every organization believes in everything the organization does. This is why we have leaks in the White House and people like “Deep Throat” that provide evidential tidbits with guidance like “follow the money”.
Steve has shared this data and the source with me, as a way of verification, and I can vouch for both the validity of the data and of the source ip address. It truly comes from deep within the organization. – Anthony
While the CRU data file is not the most current, it is the most current one the mole could produce for us.
But most importantly this will not deter Steve in his FOI requests, he writes:
And by the way, just because I’ve got a version of the data doesn’t mean that I’m going to give up trying to get the data through FOI. Quite the opposite.
Indeed. Better to get it through the front door.
I mentioned to Steve this morning via email that in addition to verifying the source, I was able to come up with a photo of the “anonymous” mole in CRU. I’ve sent him a copy.
Stay tuned.
h/t to commenter John S. at Climate Audit for the “Deep Cool” moniker.
This is starting to look like a game show contest. One where the mole, if found out gets “executed”, not the contestants.
I have worked in more than 50 countries and in none of those countries where I have needed met data has it been available free of charge. Long-term data are needed for water resources studies, irrigation system design, dam design etc. Despite the fact that the purposes for which data are needed are ones which benefit the country and that the data collection has been publically funded it is normal to pay for such data.
The CRU has been able to get a lot of this data from met services without payment on the understanding that it is not released, which if done would undermine the ability of met services to charge.
I am therefore repeating the warning I gave on Climate Audit that putting this data in public domain might mean that useful sources of data dry up and were are left with only the data provided by Hansen and his team.
Most of the comments I got to my similar post on Climate Audit were negative so let me make it clear I am not endorsing the current situation; we do have to recognise it exists and the dangers of bypassing it for short-term gain.
Be careful of your mole. If you are careless with him you may never get another. The data will be booby trapped, don’t reveal it as supplied. Steve M was wrong to reveal even the fragment he did. You were wrong to reveal you know his identity so precisely, you should next time make the polite fiction that it is an anonymous tip through a third party. Or, hopefully, your post about knowing him and having seen a photo is a polite fiction. One certainly hopes so.
There is a lot of money but maybe more important, a lot of pride and a lot of sincere conviction and a lot of reputations going around on this one. It can get very ugly. It is not a joke at all. You need to be very very careful with your sources.
“But if Steve McIntyre finds that this raw data has been in any way doctored”
They are chiropractors at Hadley. They don’t “doctor”, they perform “adjustments”.
Thanks for this Anthony. I would still like your readers to submit FOI to CRU for release of the data. We only need 10 or so more volunteers. We have to get the data by proper processes. We have to demonstrate that climate data should be open and transparent. The same goes for Climate code. I’ll keep pushing for Open Access, Open science even if Moles provide data. If we come to rely on moles, then moles will come under pressure and institutions will put more legal roadblocks in the way.
Would someone at GISS reading this care to be a mole?
If you have his IP address because he sent you (Steve) the info from his job, that’s a really bad idea for “Deep Cool”. If his superiors find out (and they can if they want) he could be fired immediately….
I am British, living inEngland and paying what I consider to be exorbitant taxes. Some of my tax money goes to to keep the Met Office alive.
How dare they claim priviledge in the data I have helped to pay for? That data belongs to the public and in the public realm.
Steve and Anthony, please don’t give up with your FOI requests. Each time that you make one it gets harder for the Met Office to deny it!!
“Deep Cool” is a cute name, but we don’t know if the mole is in any way associated with cooling. In addition to scientific motives, there may also be political motives. The UK government has recently given plenty of reason for many people to dislike improper denial of FOI requests.
Andrew P (11:16:41) :
‘…UK citizen (but not subject)…’
What part of ‘HM Revenue & Customs’ do you not understand? Opting out is not on the menu I’m afraid (until you have organized a revolution I guess).
OT – I find it amusing that the Google ad featured at the top of this column is for the UK Met Office.
On a more serious note (from the point of view of a UK tax payer) why are they paying my money to Google to advertise their existence. Folks, please don’t click on the link – UK plc can’t afford it even though (apologies to Anthony, but I’ll click on more of the alternative links to compensate for loss of revenue)!
Back on topic, does this action mean that now the “confidential” information supplied to the met office has been moved effectively into the public domain, that the owners of the source data may refuse to collborate with the Met Office in future, as implied in the response to Mr McIntyre?
So, another positive outcome then.
Skeptic Tank (10:58:52) : “Unfortunately, that thinking has been misdirected by people who feel they have the right, if not the obligation to the common good, to publicize secrets. Just because you don’t agree with a government policy or activity, doesn’t mean you’re allowed to unilaterally declassify sensitive national security information. The difference between whistle-blower and traitor had better be clear.”
The bureaucrats are the ones with the misdirected thinking. Unfortunately, governments at all levels are using just this data to drive policy that affects us all. We have a right to know if the data is any good or not since we will be paying a heavy price for it. A little anarchy here is a good thing, IMO. If the Met Office won’t make this public, the data should be barred from use in climate models or any other scientific endeavor. It ain’t science if it can’t be verified and replicated.
Well, if I had a “Hit The Mole” game on my computer, Id’ delete it, in honor of “our” 007 in Hadley. But in one way (only one) I agree with Skeptic Tank in that the sword can cut both ways and we need to be cautious in our praise of do-gooders just because he/she is on “our” side THIS time. The reason being the next time it could be someone on the other side that is DEEP inside AND doesn’t respect the safety protocols and decides to “save” the world and sets lose something that goes far beyond what they thought it would – – and results in killing us all.
Praise not the friend that does wrong for your good, least next he doth wrong to you – for a better friend.
you can quote me on that….
“I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.” H. L. Mencken
I hope the mole, whom deserves our thanks and whom I hope is reading this blog to witness our appreciation, delivered enough information to be useful. I shall be watching this space very closely.
This is great news.
All power to the Mole!
Skeptic Tank (10:58:52) :
The difference between whistle-blower and traitor had better be clear.
Well hello McCarthyism.
Hi-Sci-Fi (10:54:25) :
Interesting word – “ConScience”:
[Conscience]
“Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin conscientia, from conscient-, consciens, present participle of conscire to be conscious, be conscious of guilt…”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conscience
[Con]
“Abbreviation of Latin contra (“‘against’”)…
Actually, using the Latin, “con” is better translated as “with,” so “with knowledge.”
Mike
grammar n*zi being helpful
So now that we have the data, might we run it through the GISS Model E, (for a true picture of the future) or maybe have Jeff, Jeff, and Ryan examine the data and show ’em how it can be done right, as per Dr Steig et al.
Sure wish I hadn’t slept through tensor calculus.
Skeptic Tank (10:58:52) :
Unfortunately, that thinking has been misdirected by people who feel they have the right, if not the obligation to the common good, to publicize secrets… The difference between whistle-blower and traitor had better be clear.
Too often “secrets” and “national security” fall victim to personal temptation. If government uses secrecy to avoid scrutiny or gain unreported profit – it is the people they purport to serve that are damaged. In the case of “climate” that damage has an enormous, far-reaching price tag. Government, like the private sector is susceptible to building fiefdoms benefiting a chosen few. When built with public funds under the color of “government” – it is an abuse of promise. Eventually, it will be found out and corrected.
Anthony, we should be circumspect with regard to verifying individuals by IP address. They, like any data, are easily manipulated.
The United Kingdom of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and “Myanmar” (aka Hadley CRU). For a great and historic constitutional monarchy this is unseemly behavior. This has been a curious case from the beginning as those reading on CA know. “Curiouser and curiouser don’t you think?”
“paying what I consider to be exorbitant taxes”
Apparently not exorbitant enough. There are plans afoot to tax the very view from your window.
Neil Hyde’s petition to Downing Street re UK Met Office refusal to release CRU data.
I’ve tried 3 times to sign this petition , I fill in the boxes click ‘sign’ get the message that an e-mail has been sent and for me to confirm my signing. To date NO EMAIL to confirm. Is this site being deliberately blocked and have any others had the same problem?
@John Good ,
I would like to know that too !! One of the signatories is Peter Lilley, who I have sent links for both this thread , and the climate audit one. Hopefully he will follow up.
I do worry about the moles IP being bandied about in emails, for his sake .
ps John Good , check your junk mail , thats where most of the government stuff goes !!
crosspatch,
I refer you to a song which was popular in my youth:-
One, two, three, four…
Hrmm!
One, two, (one, two, three, four!)
Let me tell you how it will be;
There’s one for you, nineteen for me.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don’t take it all.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
if you drive a car, car – I’ll tax the street;
if you try to sit, sit – I’ll tax your seat;
if you get too cold, cold – I’ll tax the heat;
if you take a walk, walk – I’ll tax your feet.
Taxman!
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Don’t ask me what I want it for, (ah-ah, mister Wilson)
If you don’t want to pay some more. (ah-ah, mister heath)
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Now my advice for those who die, (taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes. (taxman)
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
And you’re working for no one but me.
Taxman!
You have now MET the TAXMAN and he is green.