UPDATE: Response from CRU in interview with another website, see end of this post.
The details on this are still sketchy, we’ll probably never know what went on. But it appears that University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit has been hacked and many many files have been released by the hacker or person unknown.
UPDATED: Original image was for Met Office – corrected This image source: www.cru.uea.ac.uk
I’m currently traveling and writing this from an airport, but here is what I know so far:
An unknown person put postings on some climate skeptic websites that advertised an FTP file on a Russian FTP server, here is the message that was placed on the Air Vent today:
We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to
be kept under wraps.
We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents
The file was large, about 61 megabytes, containing hundreds of files.
It contained data, code, and emails from Phil Jones at CRU to and from many people.
I’ve seen the file, it appears to be genuine and from CRU. Others who have seen it concur- it appears genuine. There are so many files it appears unlikely that it is a hoax. The effort would be too great.
Here is some of the emails just posted at Climate Audit on this thread:
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=7801#comments
I’ve redacted email addresses and direct phone numbers for the moment. The emails all have US public universities in the email addresses, making them public/FOIA actionable I believe.
From: Phil Jones
To: mann@vxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Fwd: John L. Daly dead
Date: Thu Jan 29 14:17:01 2004
From: Timo H‰meranta
To:
Subject: John L. Daly dead
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 12:04:28 +0200
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4510
Importance: Normal
Mike,
In an odd way this is cheering news ! One other thing about the CC paper – just found
another email – is that McKittrick says it is standard practice in Econometrics journals
to give all the data and codes !! According to legal advice IPR overrides this.
Cheers
Phil
“It is with deep sadness that the Daly Family have to announce the sudden death of John
Daly.Condolences may be sent to John’s email account (daly@john-daly.com)
“
Reported with great sadness
Timo H‰meranta
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Timo H‰meranta, LL.M.
Moderator, Climatesceptics
Martinlaaksontie 42 B 9
01620 Vantaa
Finland, Member State of the European Union
Moderator: timohame@yxxxxx.xxx
Private: timo.hameranta@xxxxx.xx
Home page: [1]personal.inet.fi/koti/hameranta/climate.htm
Moderator of the discussion group “Sceptical Climate Science”
[2]groups.yahoo.com/group/climatesceptics
“To dwell only on horror scenarios of the future
shows only a lack of imagination”. (Kari Enqvist)
“If the facts change, I’ll change my opinion.
What do you do, Sir” (John Maynard Keynes)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0)xxxxxx
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) xxxxxx
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email p.jones@xxx.xx.xx
NR4 7TJ
UK
—————————————————————————-
References
1. http://personal.inet.fi/koti/hameranta/climate.htm
2. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/climatesceptics
From: Phil Jones
To: ray bradley ,mann@xxxxx.xxx, mhughes@xxxx.xxx
Subject: Diagram for WMO Statement
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:31:15 +0000
Cc: k.briffa@xxx.xx.xx,t.osborn@xxxx.xxx
Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm,
Once Tim’s got a diagram here we’ll send that either later today or
first thing tomorrow.
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps
to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from
1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline. Mike’s series got the annual
land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land
N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999
for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with
data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998.
Thanks for the comments, Ray.
Cheers
Phil
Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) xxxxx
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) xxxx
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email p.jones@xxxx.xxx
NR4 7TJ
UK
—————————————————————————-
From: Jonathan Overpeck
To: “Michael E. Mann”
Subject: letter to Senate
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 16:49:31 -0700
Cc: Caspar M Ammann , Raymond Bradley , Keith Briffa , Tom Crowley , Malcolm Hughes , Phil Jones , mann@xxxxx.xxx, jto@xxxxx.xx.xxx, omichael@xxxxx.xxx, Tim Osborn , Kevin Trenberth , Tom Wigley
Hi all – I’m not too comfortable with this, and would rather not sign – at least not
without some real time to think it through and debate the issue. It is unprecedented and
political, and that worries me.
My vote would be that we don’t do this without a careful discussion first.
I think it would be more appropriate for the AGU or some other scientific org to do this –
e.g., in reaffirmation of the AGU statement (or whatever it’s called) on global climate
change.
Think about the next step – someone sends another letter to the Senators, then we respond,
then…
I’m not sure we want to go down this path. It would be much better for the AGU etc to do
it.
What are the precedents and outcomes of similar actions? I can imagine a special-interest
org or group doing this like all sorts of other political actions, but is it something for
scientists to do as individuals?
Just seems strange, and for that reason I’d advise against doing anything with out real
thought, and certainly a strong majority of co-authors in support.
Cheers, Peck
Dear fellow Eos co-authors,
Given the continued assault on the science of climate change by some on Capitol Hill,
Michael and I thought it would be worthwhile to send this letter to various members of
the U.S. Senate, accompanied by a copy of our Eos article.
Can we ask you to consider signing on with Michael and me (providing your preferred
title and affiliation). We would like to get this out ASAP.
Thanks in advance,
Michael M and Michael O
______________________________________________________________
Professor Michael E. Mann
Department of Environmental Sciences, Clark Hall
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
_______________________________________________________________________
e-mail: mann@xxxxxx.xxx Phone: (434) 924-7770 FAX: (434) xxx-xxxxx
http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/people/mann.shtml
Attachment converted: Macintosh HD:EOS.senate letter-final.doc (WDBN/MSWD) (00055FCF)
–
Jonathan T. Overpeck
Director, Institute for the Study of Planet Earth
Professor, Department of Geosciences
Mail and Fedex Address:
Institute for the Study of Planet Earth
715 N. Park Ave. 2nd Floor
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
direct tel: +xxxx
fax: +1 520 792-8795
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Faculty_Pages/Overpeck.J.html http://www.ispe.arizona.edu/
It appears that the proverbial Climate Science Cat is out of the bag.
Developing story – more later
UPDATE1: Steve McIntyre posted this on Climate Audit, I used a screen cap rtaher than direct link becuase CA is overloaded and slow at the moment.
UPDATE2: Response from CRU h/t to WUWT reader “Nev”
http://briefingroom.typepad.com/the_briefing_room/2009/11/hadleycru-says-leaked-data-is-real.html
The director of Britain’s leading Climate Research Unit, Phil Jones, has told Investigate magazine’s TGIF Edition tonight that his organization has been hacked, and the data flying all over the internet appears to be genuine.
In an exclusive interview, Jones told TGIF, “It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and emails.”
“Have you alerted police”
“Not yet. We were not aware of what had been taken.”
Jones says he was first tipped off to the security breach by colleagues at the website RealClimate.
“Real Climate were given information, but took it down off their site and told me they would send it across to me. They didn’t do that. I only found out it had been released five minutes ago.”
TGIF asked Jones about the controversial email discussing “hiding the decline”, and Jones explained what he was trying to say….
UPDATE3: McIntyre has posted an article by Jean S at climateaudit.org which is terribly overloaded. We have mirrored it.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/20/mikes-nature-trick/
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Win32.Agent.wsg is a know Spybot Search and Destroy file.
Yes, there could be some fake emails or phrases but these will be harmless unless people start claiming every word is the absolute truth. Which they won’t with ctm on guard.
Every quote is an invitation for those mentioned to declare it fake.
I have done some basic word analysis and find no clear wording similarities and the email style seems to have certain characteristic specific to each person… This doesnt address whether the emails may have been tampered with or added to, but its an indication that they are unlikely to have been written by the same person…unless they are a real professional and has thought of everything.
Characteristics:
Phil Jones: Cheering news, McKittrick, Trick, annual, According, overrides, another, cherry picked, additional, omitting, supplementary, Little difference, expected, millennial, robust, otherwise, similarly, instumental, building, a head of steam, odder, stressed, bother, ignored.
Ending – Cheers
Michael M : assault, preferred, affiliation, ASAP, extremely disappointing, say about this, formerly, Phil, submitted, category, timeframe, rather, earlier, memo.
Ending – Thanks in advance
Tom wigley: Speculations, plot, deliberately, blip, vice versa, adjustment, consistent, noted, currently, probably, stuff, skeptics, urban warming, important
Ending – Name
I think we can safely rule out it ALL being made up
“it would be interesting to break these down and read them in chronological order.”
They are in order…the email file names with the lowest number were the earlier ones…higher numbers are later. I think the numbers corispond to some sort of archiving system. They are talking about it over at Climate Audit.
If I were Senator Inhofe, I might want to ask a few questions during a special session of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
You know, like four or five hundred questions, under oath, over the course of, say, six weeks.
Glory be to God.
If there is Fortran code in the .zip, has anyone with the time / software / inclination had time to look at that as well? Harder to fake than emails, but might have some interesting comments on how data is treated (or manipulated to achieve desired results) possibly. Could be an interesting angle on this situation.
Looking forward to seeing how this story evolves …..
“We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to
be kept under wraps.
We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents”
Take it from an Englishman, there’s nothing wrong with that English.
BTW, the zip file shows clean, but some scanners can occasionally report a non existent Trojan.
Here’s one from From:
To: k.briffaxxxx
Subject: No Subject
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 10:09:48 +0400 (MSD)
on trwcrn.rwm
Tree-ring widths (TRW) chronology:
… a whole lot of data and then:
Abstract:
Regional tree-ring chronology with extension 2209 years (since
212 B.C. till 1996 A.D.) was built for the east of Taymir
according to wood of living trees, well preserved residues of dead
trees and semi-fossil wood from alluvial bank deposits by the
cross-dating method. In addition the “floading” tree-ring width
chronology for the period of Holocene Optimum (3300-2600 B.C.)
was built with extention 685 years and supported by several
rdiocarbon dates. ….Temperature dynamics in the eastern part of Taymir
for the last two millenia agrees well with temperature variations
in the northern hemisphere obtained according to other indirect
sources. The warming of the middle of the 20-th century is not
extraordinary. The more long in time, and close in amplitude the
warming at the border of the first and the second millennia was.
the email was from
why is the email address getting deleted?
Reply: Because I’m redacting that level of personal information. Should you try again your posts will be completely deleted. ~ charles the moderator.
All’s still silent at RC since about 6pm today (I assume Eastern…not too long after things started up here).
After watching the ufo phenomenon and ufology for a few years there is one thing I know: That if something seems too difficult to hoax, you are wrong.
Shame shame shame
Had they been cooperative over the last 4 years and shared some data, it wouldn’t be so nasty now.
Add this to the tree ring circus and we see they flushed the credibility down the toilet. This will make 5-6 people even more angry and hatefull. Real climate is still at this hour discussing trees.
I have added another copy for download
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=75J4XO4T
British “civil servants” are famous or infamous really for leaving laptops of unencrypted sensitive information when they get off the bus or subway. It could have involved zero hacking, just picking up a lose laptop.
Henry chance (20:49:05), you might want to read my last few post. Real Climate isn’t dicussing anything “at this hour”…or a number of hours earlier. I’m wondering if the RC staff went into supreme panic mode, and any comments at RC have been stuck in the moderation queue since 6pm Eastern since there is nobody around to release them.
Little need to spend much time wondering how genuine they all are. Any of the messages which involve public institutions could be requested from the institution. If you get the same message directly from the institution, you know that specific message was genuine. Then you can spend energy on the message content and on wondering whether the others are genuine.
From Lucia on her site:
“Gavin emailed me out of the blue. He told me the link was down at JeffId’s. I’d taken a screen shot so I sent the screen shot to Gavin. I don’t know if Gavin’s efforts led to getting the link down, or if that .ru server is down due to the link going viral. I mean…even though the link is not posted, do you have any idea how many people must be slamming that server?”
loki:
You are concerned that “all the files in the mail folder have date 1/1/2009 00:00.” This kind of thing can happen when the files are transferred from one computer to another. It happened to me once when I got a new computer in my office and I moved all my e-mail history to the new computer. Very annoying!
I am not stating that this is the case here, but it is not necessarily an indication of forgery.
Mike Abbott (18:16:20) :
My point about “Anyone advising the removal of numbers etc is being rather silly.” was in context of the futility of it.
Why should anyone take the time to redact the when it’s traveling fast and furious around the globe. They’d be the very few who did so and for zero reason but for presuming legal advise was needed
And what might that professional opinion be and more importantly how much would it cost?
My laymen’s advise is to have everyone post and spread the full content everywhere and let the lawyers try and sue us all.
Extraordinary. Things are really heating up!
If this proves not to be a hoax, it may have been released by one of the main actors in the play whose conscious was getting the best of him – best way to relieve the guilty conscious is to get it all out there so to speak & stop living a lie. Not too dis-similar from Jimbo (20:20:36) : & the reply that it was Phil Jones that released the data via anon. ftp
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XD050VKY
A friend put the file up as a torrent..
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5171206
At 02:38 PM 9/14/98 -0700, Jonathan T. Overpeck wrote:
“Talking specifically about Jasper, it is interesting that the 20th century is as warm or warmer than everything in the last 1000 years EXCEPT before ca. 1110 AD.”
From: Keith Briffa
To: “Jonathan T. Overpeck” , p.jones@xxx, mann@xxx rbradley@xxx, drdendro@xxx coleje@sxxx Brian Luckman
Subject: Re: climate of the last millennia…
Date: Tue Oct 6 13:38:33 1998
“So don’t put much faith in the early warmth. We have devised a simple method of scaling down the variance in average series to take account of the inflated variance that occurs when a reduced number of series are averaged – such as at the start of this chronology .”
Reply: Stop that or I will simply start deleting. From now on. Everyone is on notice. ~ ctm