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/
Sponsored IT training links:
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Michael Jankowski (19:42:54) :
Anyone know what time zone RC’s comments are on? The last ones on the most recent thread were prior to 6pm today, and there seemed to be posts every several minutes leading up to that point. So it seems unusual that the commenting would’ve suddenly stopped for hours if that were 6pm Eastern. The commenting was going on pretty steadling well beyond “6pm” last night (longest break by far was 2am to 5:36am).
Is that a sign that they started sh!tting bricks and are letting everything sit in the moderation queue whilst they scramble to put out fires?
Busy shredding paperwork and deleting emails I should think.
The funniest one so far is a discussion on how to protect FTP/web pages:
The username and password must be a reference to Steve McIntyre, I have no doubt.
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.
‘The data’—but also the emails? Are they also genuine?
Is Phil Jones also the mole for this?
1252164302.txt
From: Jonathan Overpeck
Subject: Re: Arctic2k update?
Date: Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:25:02 -0700
Cc:
D et al – Please write all emails as though they will be made public.
…
Be careful, very careful. But now you know why I advocated redoing all the analyses a few
months ago – to make sure we got it all right. We knew we’d get this scrutiny.
This paper has had great impact so far, so that’s something to remember – its good work.
Thanks, peck
What on earth are they so keenly avoiding speaking about?!?!
from the harry read me file (long)
READ ME for Harry’s work on the CRU TS2.1/3.0 datasets, 2006-2009!
they seem to have a pretty water tight filingsystem ;p
”
So.. we don’t have the coefficients files (just .eps plots of something). But
what are all those monthly files? DON’T KNOW, UNDOCUMENTED. Wherever I look,
there are data files, no info about what they are other than their names. And
that’s useless.. take the above example, the filenames in the _mon and _ann
directories are identical, but the contents are not. And the only difference
is that one directory is apparently ‘monthly’ and the other ‘annual’ – yet
both contain monthly files.
These are the files that have been lost according to the gridding read_me
(see above).
The conclusion of a lot of investigation is that the synthetic cloud grids
for 1901-1995 have now been discarded. This means that the cloud data prior
to 1996 are static.
Edit: have just located a ‘cld’ directory in Mark New’s disk, containing
over 2000 files. Most however are binary and undocumented..
”
what a noobs!
1233249393.txt
Ben,
> Also I see Pielke Snr has submitted a comment on Sherwood’s
> work. He is a prat. He’s just had a response to a comment
> piece that David Parker, Tom Peterson and I wrote on a paper
> they had in 2007. Pielke wouldn’t understand independence if it
> hit him in the face. Both papers in JGR online. Not worth you
> reading them unless interested.
>
> Cheers
> Phil
For those still looking for the file, you can get a torrent of it from The Pirate Bay:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5171206/Hadley_CRU_Files_(FOI2009.zip)
The md5 agrees with those published above:
da2e1d6c453e0643e05e90c681eb1df4 *FOI2009.zip
I am an old guy. 74 at the end of this year. The warmmongers who post here sound to me exactly as the Republicans sounded right after Woodward published what he got from Deep Throat. No actual witness to testify, no actual “proof”, but it did bring down the President of the United States, it did.
Any Woodwards around anymore? I understand that the viewing of TV is really down, and getting “downer”. Desperation might do what otherwise couldn’t be thought to possibly happen. I can only hope.
I wonder if big oil is behind this…if so perhaps we’ll see a pop among the Exxon Mobils of the world. Just dreaming here….
1247199598.txt
From: “Tim Osborn”
To: I.Harris
Subject: cruts tmp to 2008
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:19:58 +0100 (BST)
Hi Harry,
finally had time to take a look at the latest cruts3 run through to 2008
for tmp, picked up from /cru/cruts/
…
So:
(1) hot spikes have been corrected.
(2) cold spikes still there.
(3) some odd differences in mean level.
Progress!
Tim
Herald Sun’s Andrew Bolt confirms hack three or four days ago:
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/hadley_hacked#63657
Now that Hadley has admitted the files to be genuine surely the mainstraim media will have to jump on it they would be mad not to. First one in will get the readership/numbers. They will have weeks of stories for this one
George E Smith.. not the “CCD” George E Smith.. if you’re the same person.. What an honour!
A few of you have posted worries about “new” posters here that have been coming out of the “woodwork” on this topic with concerns about intent. I can only speak for myself, but I am an official lurker here but have never, until today, posted a comment.
I instead have spent much of my time (same username) trying to convert some of the AGW cult in the global warming threads on Media Matters for America (needless to say, the response to my presence there has been less than kind–kind of like that Donald Sutherland screech at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and have frequently referenced Steve and Anthony in my failed missionary efforts.
Seeing this story break and start to evolve has forced me from my lurker position though. Like many other posters here, I have to concur that we have to tread forward cautiously here. I too get the “too good to be true” feeling about it and time will tell whether or not this is authentic (hopefully).
And like others have said, really the most important thing here is the data. If it has not been “salted” it will yield much over the coming months. That being said, if the emails are authenticated, they are truly damning.
But to me this is the bottom line: regardless of whether or not this is real, I believe the continued chipping away at AGW will eventually ensure its failure. As I have said at MMfA, it is a house of cards built on the shakiest of foundations. Perhaps this will be the heavy wind that will finally blow it over, but if not, rest assured that day will come (I know for many of us that day has come and gone long ago, but I mean for the deeply-entrenched in the AGW crowd).
Until then, I will continue my battles over at MMfA (wish me luck–one woman said, “I hope you drown yourself when the sea level increases.”). Keep up the good work here, but proceed with caution on this one until it develops further.
Rereke Whakaaro, wrote:
“Most cyber attacks are opportunistic and against soft targets. I doubt that CRU has gaping holes in their security systems, precisely because they fear the risk of attack from people wanting access their data.”
If that were true, this should have been impossible:
“Gary McKinnon faces extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for allegedly hacking into computers at the Pentagon and NASA.”
http://www.theautismnews.com/2009/07/31/uk-pentagon-hacker-loses-appeal-will-be-sent-to-u-s/
I haven’t read all the comments – so perhaps someone has already mentioned this – but when they refer to the “decline” could they not be referring to the post WW2 temperature decline that led to the “global cooling” scam of the mid seventies? After all, it is the post 1961 and pre 1981 data that they appear to be modifying.
It’s no secret that there was an apparent significant decline in global temperature during that time and that decline itself doesn’t prove or disprove the CO2 warming theory, but it does cause an inconvenience to the warmists. Perhaps they wanted to smooth it out in some way by adding in modified data that factored out anomalies?
As a layman sceptic I am hopeful that the file contents are genuine. Like others here I suspect this is not “hacked” in the true sense of the word, but actually the work of an insider. However, I would also urge caution at this time. Ideally, it would be good if this story was followed up by a good independent investigative journalist with the skill and contacts to maximise the impact if it was found to be genuine.
I fear, however, that even if found to be genuine, the MSM will freeze this out of the news. It doesn’t suit the MSM narrative. AGW has been massive for the MSM – they do not want to kill the goose that lays a hundred 9 carat golden eggs a week for a one off 18 carat monster ouef.
“Will work for food”
Mike Salmon, IT manager, CRU
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/photo/mike_salmon.jpg
Joe:
““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.”
Holy crap, if that’s what it sounds like there a smoking gun.”
No Joe, an exploding ammunition dump. And a big one at that.
Unlike most fossil fuel company CEOs, Massey Energy’s Don Blankenship knows his global warming. Calling Anthropogenic Global Warming a hoax and a Ponzi scheme, he will be proven right by the data released today.
http://eenews.net/tv/video_guide/1073
Unfortunately, I have zero confidence in the completely global-warming-captured mainstream media to even mention this scandalous, sordid affair.
Just watch out for the new doc movie made by Michael Moore :
“De Warming Code”
The ABC will have a exclusive wright for broadcasting.
LOL
Me think these guys are the foot-solders for higher power (Gore, Soros etc)
“useful idiots”
If true, fraudulent scientists belong in jail!
http://motls.blogspot.com/2009/11/hacked-hadley-cru-foi2009-files.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LuboMotlsReferenceFrame+%28Lubos+Motl%27s+reference+frame%29
Jones has been contacted. It is real.
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2009/11/some-verification-of-hadley-cru-files.html
Hey guys, Jones admitted this was real? Something seems fishy about that. How does a warmist hoax (old data + edited emails) designed to discredit valid scientific skepticism sound to you? I know such a hoax would simply confirm that they’re nothing but a bunch of anti scientific charlatans, but i doubt the media/public would see that.
i can see how obama pretending that he wont be going to copenhagen might put some in a false sense of security, then BAM.. they’ve signed the damn thing with this hanging over our heads.
Lets hope not hey.. and be careful
Second galileonardo
– but lots of anonymous dropping this link into well known UK blogs eg Guido without any comment which looks fishy.