From Andrew Bolt, my “mate” down under at the Herald Sun, comes this surprise. I’ll have to say, it is to George Monbiot’s credit to do this. I embrace his first statement, because it succinctly sums up the situation:
It’s no use pretending that this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging(1). I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them.
– George Monbiot on his personal blog
George seems to realize that, “it’s worse than we thought”.
From Andrew Bolt:
Even George Monbiot, one of the fiercest media propagandists of the warming faith, admits he should have been more sceptical and says the science now needs to be rechecked:
It’s no use pretending that this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them.
Yes, the messages were obtained illegally. Yes, all of us say things in emails that would be excruciating if made public. Yes, some of the comments have been taken out of context. But there are some messages that require no spin to make them look bad. There appears to be evidence here of attempts to prevent scientific data from being released, and even to destroy material that was subject to a freedom of information request.
Worse still, some of the emails suggest efforts to prevent the publication of work by climate sceptics, or to keep it out of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I believe that the head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign. Some of the data discussed in the emails should be re-analysed.
Sure, Monbiot claims the fudging of what he extremely optimistically puts as just “three or four” scientists doesn’t knock over the whole global warming edifice, yet…
If even Monbiot, an extremist, can say that much, why cannot the Liberals say far more? And will now the legion of warmist journalists in our own media dare say as Monbiot has so belatedly:
I apologise. I was too trusting of some of those who provided the evidence I championed. I would have been a better journalist if I had investigated their claims more closely.
Scepticism is the essential disposition of our craft, yet too many journalists have abandoned it. Remember: the opposite of sceptical is gullible.
UPDATE: Here’s the screencap from Monbiot’s blog on the Guardian:
Click to see the original.
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Like several others, I was worried that the actual apology was not genuine, as it did not appear in the main piece. I was actually starting to think that the ‘apology’ had been fabricated. With great relief I saw that WUWT provided the link to the apology, which was part of the ensuing thread and, as such, easily missed.
Just a suggestion: it would have been better if WUWT provided a separate link to the apology, as it was not, strictly speaking, part of the main piece.
Having said that, I feel I must pay tribute to Monbiot for his words and his apology, although the latter part of his post is nonsense. Clearly he’s not going to become a sceptic any time soon. But it does seem quite possible that the seeds of doubt have been sown in his mind. Just a short week ago those quotes would have seemed like utter fantasy. That apology is actually quite stunning.
I would also like to pay tribute to WUWT for excellent coverage for something that may – if there’s any justice in the world – prove to be a world-chengeing event.
Now it seems this story has escaped the confines of the Internet. Today’s printed Daily Telegraph has a full page spread on it, though it does include the obligatory photo of a stranded polar bear. With this growing publicity, and a call from the arch-warmer Monbiot for Jones to resign, these people must be feeling very sorry for themselves.
Chris
big news from Australia
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/how-malcolm-turnbull-staged-his-own-destruction/story-e6frgczf-1225803475575
Malcolm Turnbull will be booted out tomorrow morning probably. But even more interesting… labor will lose the next election based on AGW unless they change stance pretty soon ( Which they will of course) which by then will be AGW = 0 Skeptics = 100, deniers 110% LOL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire thats what the whole post on Monbiot’s blog is (including …”the head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign.”)
Above Paul Clark has already expressed things well.
Monbiot is mocking us.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017714/climategate-monbiot-makes-it-all-suddenly-ok-through-medium-of-satire/
I’m waiting to hear from Lyndon LaRouche.
why is Gavin posting at RC and answering questions / censoring, instead of doing his day job?
What a snake GM is. First he says “It’s no use pretending that this isn’t a major blow.” But then he trivializes it, saying “They damage the credibility of three or four scientists. They raise questions about the integrity of one or perhaps two out of several hundred lines of evidence”, and he then goes on to portray the typical AGWers straw man argument of a “global conspiracy” using sarcasm as his weapon of choice to disembowel said straw man.
I’d trust him about as far as we can throw him.
We really ought to be kinder to poor George Monbiot.
It is a matter of public record that he suffers from cerebral malaria.
(Google george monbiot cerebral malaria.)
The problem going forward with this is to maintain the public’s focus. Assuming, of course, that CRUgate has capture the general public’s attention in the first place. The 24 hr news cycle is like a drive by shooting, and the public says: “Oh how terrible. ” Then moves on to the next one a day later.
Copenhagen cancelled!!? The heat in the kitchen will be very hot, and politicians do not like to be under this kind of microscope.
Bill Illis (04:47:18) :
“I think this is also about throwing Phil Jones under the bus – he is going to be the fall-guy. (Mann will also have to be a fall-guy).”
I frankly don’t think any of them will be fired from their current positions, and given their tenacity, I doubt they’ll resign on their own.
What will be more interesting to me is if the climate and science journals they serve, either as authors and reviewers, will permit their involvement in the future. I think they should be ** banned ** from ever reviewing another paper for anyone, given the obvious collusion and political maneuvering that was so evident in the e-mails. I also think that the scientists who were besmirched by this bunch should collectively call for some action on the part of the professional societies (AGU, AMS, etc.).
From my Company Newsletter (firmly warmist):-
CLIMATE CHANGE CAMPAIGN….
HUGE billboard adverts have started to appear in over 900 locations across England today, depicting what the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) describe as “typical British seasons” that could soon look very different because of the impacts of climate change.
With just 13 days left until the start of negotiations in Copenhagen which will involve 192 countries gathering “to decide the fate of the planet”, DECC say the adverts offer a stark message to climate change sceptics. Energy and Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock says it is essential that the public are informed and aware of the threats posed by serious climate change.
A recent poll carried out by DECC revealed that over 50 per cent of people questioned don’t believe climate change will affect them, and only 18 per cent believe that climate change will take effect during their children’s lifetime. Only 26 per cent believe that climate change is already impacting on the UK; 52 per cent of people believe that their actions as an individual can help stop the effects of climate change, and 74 per cent would take immediate action to change their lifestyle now “if they knew that climate change would affect their children’s lives.”
The advertising campaign has been launched at a time when a British climate change research centre is at the hub of a controversy over the release of world-wide temperature data, information which
sceptics say undermines the claim that the planet is warming due to manmade emissions. The row over alleged “junk science” involves the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit and its involvement with HadCrut, a major project creating a record of global temperatures based on surface weather stations around the world and which assists with short-term weather forecasting including warm, dry, and ‘barbecue summers’ in recent years.
The change of tone at RC is suspicious. Everything is getting through and yes Gavin is saying yes to everything (ie we will post all data). Either he’s been told to adapt or we will shut down the site (Soros et al), or you will have no job,…. or he really has been born again! LOL he certainly is taking it hard
Yes, Jones must go as head of CRU. I’ve been saying it for several days now. That he will be replaced by another warmist is of course inevitable –but that’s not the point. He must be replaced by someone who does not believe that it is the proper course of business to thwart legitimate requests for information/data, subvert the peer review process, destroy data, and just in general act like a mafia godfather.
Very refreshing to see that some in their own camp are beginning to realize it as well. Until Steve McI and others finish analyzing the data/code parts of the leak, it is hard to say if there is much of a “science” scandal here. But there is clearly a “scientist scandal”, and it is time for accountability to visit Dr. Jones.
BTW if anyone wants to watch the men behind the curtain working in real time rather than from the hack, watch the way this is playing out on its Wikipedia page.
The article is about 1/10th the size of the discussion and some of the issues are priceless – how they’re trying to control this one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_e-mail_hacking_incident
I mean I love this quote in the article: “Leading climate change scientist Kevin Trenberth said that it “may be aimed at undermining talks at next month’s Copenhagen global climate summit”.[8]” which is sourced, however the wiki guys can’t even recognise that some of the FOI requests run back years.
It’s quite hilarious.
I was once taught examples of how to to tell if a person is a true psychotic. Two folks believed they could walk on water, but the truly psychotic still believed it even after walking out, nearly drowning and having to have CPR on the beach to save his life – and even right after, would wade back out to show everyone how they could actually walk on the water…
It sort of relates here – we’ll now see who the truly “religiously brainwashed” are versus those that maybe still have some grasp of reason.
Perp-walk all of them.
Monbiot is apologizing for being embarrassed by Jones. So he wants Jones out. Then nothing else changes.
Looks like Monbiot has lost face by reason of being gullible in regards to Jones.
Jones will not be redeemed for the content of his messages by finding a hacker.
Finding a hacker or leaker won’t change a single biased message.
For some reason, some shallow minds believe what is don’t with hope of privacy doesn’t matter. Can’t blame the delivery boy or messenger.
It’s fine to post on blogs like this but it is preaching to the converted. Why not also take the time to email your Representative as I do from time to time qv below:-
Dear David
Earlier this year I sent you an email warning that the Conservative Party should row back from their naive position of total acceptance of the tenets of AGW which, as I endeavoured to explain at that time, was based on tenuous and highly suspect evidence .
Now that the blogosphere is full of the material liberated from the University of East Anglia detailing the unprofessional shenanigans of it’s climate scientists and their falsification of data in order to prove their now discredited theories, I again suggest that your party disassociates itself to at least a position of neutrality on the entire concept.
To have allowed yourselves to become embroiled in this deception to the extent that you are was foolhardy by any standard, but to persist in peddling what may prove to be the scam of the century in the run up to June will lose you the Election.
As this continues to unfold, and more revelations may well be on the way, any party that continues to support the hysterical output of the green agenda will be taken for either fools or knaves – and I will vote for neither!
Roger Pascoe
Here in Belgium we heard the news today that the US government will lie on the table concrete target figures for the reduction of GHGs at the climate conference in Copenhagen. The Obama government promises to reduce the emission of CO2 in 2020 with four percent in comparison to 1990.
It is the first time that the US gives a target figure.
Is this the end of the U.S. sovereignty and the creation of a new ‘world government’?
Monbiot is mocking those that believe the release of the emails will finish the debate in the favor of the skeptics.
Monbiot apologised for being too trusting of those he communicated with and that apology seems sincere.
Monbiot does want the misdeeds as indicated in the emails to be punished.
I don’t see why anyone would believe that the release of the emails would finish the debate that was already over but has still been going on. The only thing that will finish this debate is that the lack of warming continues and the models are proven statistically unviable or the warming continues in such a way as to make those still doubting irrelevant.
Folks… get a dose of reality! As I posted extensively on the Glenn Beck thread, old media is NOT your friend. They are the ENEMY. They have been in on this scam from the get-go carrying the water and running cover for the IPCC/CRU. Do not read or watch them and do not think that this leopard can be trusted to change its spots. Use your address book and some good pensmanship to get the story out to everyone you know….. and let the corrupt old media die its slow, painful but essential death.
Watt Tyler (05:51:33) :
That’s not satire …. this is satire…or have you forgotten?
Anthony
Monbiot states that “They damage the credibility of three or four scientists. They raise questions about the integrity of one or perhaps two out of several hundred lines of evidence. To bury man-made climate change, a far wider conspiracy would have to be revealed.”
Let’s help him out there. With a quiet 2009 Atlantic Hurricane season winding down, Global Hurricane Frequency hitting record lows, the Ocean Temperature Anomaly dropping and Al Gore Photoshoping in hurricanes to try to gloss over these facts, a good synopsis article on hurricanes can damage the credibility of a bunch more scientists (Al Gore has no credibility to damage), raise questions on the integrity of several more lines of evidence and come one step closer to burying the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming narrative.
Watt Tyler (05:51:33) :
Yup. I fell for it too – I thought he was being sincere. He’s going to make another post and ridicule us skeptics on how easy it is to fool us and how gullible we all are.