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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I think some of you need more coffee. GM repents ..er ..yea ..right. In other news Satan injured by rogue snowball. The tags must have been stripped as he was posting
Climate Heretic (20:30:37) :
Uhm anyone read the Monbiot blog post, he is making fun of you, me, us. He does not believe what he posted, it is a sacarsm laden poke in the eye.
The lead in is simply to set you up for the punchline.
People be a little wary in our reading of the reactions of AGWers.
Please people read Monbiot’s ENTIRE post.
This is no mea culpa. Its what the Heretic says.
Another lie from a professional liar.
Why pay attention?
The way to win is to refuse playing the conman’s game.
I believe that the head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign.
What’s the big deal that he says this?? Monboit never understood or cared about the science in the first place. He doesn’t really understand who Phil Jones —or at least he wants everyone to believe that. It’s a simple choice for him to call for his resignation. He’s just downplaying the significance of the scientists involved so he can minimize the damage done from ClimateGate. His activism, or agenda, or whatever is the appropriate term, is more important than these scientists. So—downplay them to minimize the damage to his machine.
And BTW, who cares who George Monbiot is? He is a mindless propagandist. We already knew that, didn’t we?
Coffee needed by me also …
The < sark > tags must have been stripped as he was posting.
…. Hey guys, don’t knock him. He is right for half his article. He admits he was wrong and calls for the science to be reassessed…. That’s fine by me.
He’s probably hating himself now for his sarcastic lapse…. So hold him to it;-)
Well this is progress. How much and how sincere we can’t know. To me it seems more like Monbiot is just taking a safer postion until he knows the importance of this battle in the larger war.
He knows this may ebb away with absolutely no valid investigations or adverse effects to those implicated. I haven’t heard of any authority taking actions yet.
Is it CYA, or rats leaving the ship, or a confession of being gulled? Who knows?
Dr. Curry has given a statement. With her usual courtesy. She has always supported skeptics on this vital point; Climate Scientists should produce their data and metadata. In nearly every case their work has been publicly funded and disclosure is the law.
She takes the approach that those involved perceived queries from McIntyre, et al, as somehow evil or threatening. And they reacted in a tribal manner. They would defend by any means necessary because their cause was just and they could not err.
I disagree somewhat with Curry’s premise. But it is not an unreasonable one and she has considerable experience with some of the people involved.
“If so Phil and the Motley Cru [ha ha!] – don’t bother getting up from under the bus. There are plenty more coming.”
Over on Malkin’s site (see link above) the thread is headed by a picture of Gore with his hands in a praying gesture below his chin, with his eyes close and head bowed. Malkin’s caption reads, “Yeah, you better pray.”
Squidly is right, Monbiot is mocking the ‘skeptics’. There’s no apology there, just clever sneering.
I read it, Squidly’s right.
Look, this whole issue is a means to an end.
It’s not about science, it’s about ideology. Any
way to get there is fine. There is no scientific
process, because there are no rules. Lying
is a moral concept and moral relativism is
unsustainable and self consuming. They eat
through their own reality to chase a false god.
These people are afraid of life because they
can’t explain it. If they were truly interested
in science and its processes they would not
make statements like this: “The fact is that we
can’t account for the lack of warming at the
moment and it is a travesty that we can’t”.
Why is that a “travesty” and not a challenge?
Answer: Ideology.
George Monbiot is only sorry they got caught.
I don’t know how to say this because I really, really don’t want to offend —I love WUWT—, but
this post may have been put up in haste. I suggest it is removed.
Just my 2 cents
REPLY: I hear what you are saying, and I was aware of the sarcasm in the bottom half when I published, but the fact is that Monbiot went on record with: 1) An apology 2) A call for Dr. Jones resignation. That’s hard news, and just because George can’t keep himself from being smarmy in the other half of the article is no reason to ignore those two points. Later, they will be important. Best to get them on record elsewhere now. – Anthony
<sark /> tags. There Coffee does work.
Jeremy (22:27:10) :
With the fraud now exposed will the Nobel Prize be revoked?
I am still trimming, Jeremy, which one ?
If someone had claimed a week ago that Monbiot would write that the science needs checking and that Jones should resign, who among us would have believed it?
Spin or no spin, this is huge.
David Alan (20:21:29) :
Nope, he hasn’t been duped. He’s a sarcastic s.o.b.
You’re probably right Anthony. After 2 1/2 years of dealing with trolls I may be a bit jaded.
Maybe Mr Monbiot should offer close-captioning for the humor-impaired. Honestly, folks — if you didn’t find his ’email’ at least mildly amusing, you need to turn off the computer and go outdoors for a while. Maybe a couple of weeks.
Monbiot earned respect from me today, anyway, and I salute him. It took guts and good humor to write something like that — a rare combination. I’m pretty sure I disagree with him about a lot of things, but I’m ready to pay much more attention to him now, no matter what his views are.
We have sceptics, scammers, squawkers, suckers and skimmers in this debate. The scammers provide fodder for the squawkers, and have now been exposed. The squawkers turn the fodder into fine food for the suckers. The skimmers set up renewables businesses to fleece the suckers, and may also fund the scammers. The suckers swallow the food faster annd faster, and grow the fleece. As for the sceptics, they go hungry, and are covered in vomit from the scammers, squawkers and suckers, but rise above it all, thank goodness. And sometimes a squawker can become a sceptic.
Whatever his sentiment is (contrition within defiance) we can all see that this has opened the door for a public airing.
This is not going away.
The emails clearly indicate that these jokers have been in the habit of making little “adjustments” where they find it necessary. Now we just need one decent journalist to draw a nice clear picture for the general audience.
I read some of the forgiving remarks here and want to puke.
This is one of the big cheerleaders who has been complicit in a fraudulent manipulative alarmist agenda.
Nah. If one is willing to adjust their view because of undeniable evidence then all I can say is good job.
I would like to think if more forth coming and convincing evidence of global warming were presented to me that I would have an open mind and adjust what i think is true to that evidence. I would also hope that if i did that the people whom I previously disagreed would not chastise me for it.
To those questioning Monbiot’s sincerity or seriousness here, note that there is one thing that he has done unambiguously: he has called for Prof. Phil Jones’ resignation.
This is, to me, a big step forward, because we all know that Jones isn’t the only one. It must surely send a message to many scientists with similar guilty evidence of scientific fraud committed in the name of ending fossil fuel use that the tide of opinion is suddenly turning against them.
I’m surprised we haven’t seen any Climategate jokes circulating yet. Let’s see, there was an American, an Englishman, and an idiot…. no, no, try again, they were all idiots…
The Globe and Mail Thomson Reuters and Le Figaro have yet to even inform their readership about it. Reuters was busy advertising a Green Fund in Canada…
He’s laying the foundations for his post Global Warming apocalypse career as a commentator. The call for resignations will be proof in the future that Monbiot was on the sceptic side all along.
Monbiots silly essay clearly shows that he hasn’t got a clue. Nobody disputes that adding CO2 to the atmosphere can give a slight warning. Indeed, reasonable people like Lindtzen, Spencer, Monckton and others have, in different ways, proved that a doubling of CO2 from pre-industrial 280ppm to 560ppm should give a temperature rise of approx. 1 or 1.1 degree celsius. We may have seen some of that already. It is the unfounded theory of water vapour as a positive forcing which is the problem and the reason for all the hysteria that we are so sceptic about.