UPDATED: related FOIA documents are now posted at the end of this story.
Posted on the American Spectator:
“Climate Gate” Development: CEI Files Notice of Intent to Sue NASA
By Chris Horner on 11.24.09 @ 9:46AM
Today, on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, I filed three Notices of Intent to File Suit against NASA and its Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), for those bodies’ refusal – for nearly three years – to provide documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
The information sought is directly relevant to the exploding “ClimateGate” scandal revealing document destruction, coordinated efforts in the U.S. and UK to avoid complying with both countries’ freedom of information laws, and apparent and widespread intent to defraud at the highest levels of international climate science bodies. Numerous informed commenters had alleged such behavior for years, all of which appears to be affirmed by leaked emails, computer codes and other data from the Climatic Research Unit of the UK’s East Anglia University.
All of that material and that sought for years by CEI go to the heart of the scientific claims and campaign underpinning the Kyoto Protocol, its planned successor treaty, “cap-and-trade” legislation and the EPA’s threatened regulatory campaign to impose similar measures through the back door.
CEI sought the following documents, among others, NASA’s failure to provide which within thirty days will prompt CEI to file suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia:
– internal discussions about NASA’s quiet correction of its false historical U.S. temperature records after two Canadian researchers discovered a key statistical error, specifically discussion about whether and why to correct certain records, how to do so, the impact or wisdom or potential (or real) fallout therefrom or reaction to doing so (requested August 2007);
– internal discussions relating to the emails sent to James Hansen and/or Reto A. Ruedy from Canadian statistician Steve McIntyre calling their attention to the errors in NASA/GISS online temperature data (August 2007);
– those relating to the content, importance or propriety of workday-hour posts or entries by GISS/NASA employee Gavin A. Schmidt on the weblog or “blog” RealClimate, which is owned by the advocacy Environmental Media Services and was started as an effort to defend the debunked “Hockey Stick” that is so central to the CRU files. RealClimate.org is implicated in the leaked files, expressly offered as a tool to be used “in any way you think would be helpful” to a certain advocacy campaign, including an assertion of Schmidt’s active involvement in, e.g., delaying and/or screening out unhelpful input by “skeptics” attempting to comment on claims made on the website.
This and the related political activism engaged in are inappropriate behavior for a taxpayer-funded employee, particularly on taxpayer time. These documents were requested in January 2007 and NASA/GISS have refused to date to comply with their legal obligation to produce responsive documents.
RELATED DOCUMENTS (PDF)
Hansen GISS Correction FOI Request
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Chris S (13:46:03) : JP (10:18:32) : “Does anyone know what this Earth Government is?”
Sorry, I messed up second link above. Here it is corrected.
It’s also a new religion, complete with covenant (“earth charter”) and “ark of the earth charter”.
Note the earth charter info is a PDF put out by the UN.
They are the last people I want in charge of my world.
And Roger Harrabin’s conclusion to this whole thing is:
“But this affair will surely change things: From now, scientific teams and peer-review groups will be much more cautious about how they word e-mails.”
We’re screwed if this is the type om MSM storys that will cover this scandal
REPLY: You are making this too hard. Simply type in the link in the comment and WP will auto link it.
Example: http://www.google.com http://www.amazon.com
all I did for these was type in the w w w . whatevever and WP did the rest. Works the same for cut and paste. – Anthony
————————-
Yeah, I know. I’m just trying to be clever and failing dismally! 🙂
“Adam:
Here is the thing folks – it is about both science and politics. The ground looks like this – people identified as scientists are telling politicians that there is an existential threat. Politicians at first ignore it but when the media amplifies the assertion of the threat the public gets nervous. The politicians then respond and now refer to the scientists with a great deal of defference, as does the media.”
Sorry…I disagree. This makes it sound like the politicians are somehow reluctant, late adopters. The politicians never ignore anything that allows them to exert control, or that’s a source of revenue. The monies involved in the taxation that’s all built on this house of cards has already been spent funding all manner of things.
JimB
I have never felt this many emotions at once. Relief that CC is finally proving to be bogus. Anger that so many have had to go without government help because so much of its money, my tax dollars, has gone down this s@it hole, and worry that the responsible persons will get away with this grand lie while managing to force punitive and unnecessary legislation on the masses. Folks this train is well out of the station and can well cause some damage before it is halted. I am writing every member of our government here in Canada. I will also be asking my local MP what my government plans to do with the revelations of the past few days. This is a time for action. We cannot leave this to the experts only. Who is putting pressure on the main stream media to break this story? No one here in Canada as far as I can see. We need to bring the Liberal media to its knees on this and force them to put the truth front and center.
Robinson (14:24:50) :
Agreed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8377465.stm
Horrorbin waxes large.
“Over two decades I’ve spoken to mainstream scientists who are sick of hearing their work attacked and their motives questioned. In this world, climate science extends beyond arguments about trend-smoothing to become a matter of life and death for millions of people, according to the mainstream projections on temperatures.”
Yes, yes, Roger, but did you speak to non-mainstream scientists who are sick of hearing their work attacked and their motives questioned?
I predict that on the road to Denmark, there is going to be a lot of sad singing and slow driving.
“Why Phil Jones had not yet resigned is utterly astonishing.”
Give it time. For the dead pool I place the date of his resignation to be announced by Monday. I would have chosen later but i remembered the brits don’t have Thanksgiving
Rational Debate (12:57:26)
and
Chris S (13:46:03)
thank you both. that was great help. glad to see that our side is always ready to help the least informed. now to the general public, en force.
Take ’em down hard, chaps. Truth and justice has been delayed for far too long…
I originally put this comment under another thread, but it is more appropriate here.
Might I suggest that the CEI add an FOIA request for all work product related to meetings and decisions to “Gut” the Global History Climate Network of any high altitude and cold location thermometers? It is directly related to this, as both Hadley CRUt and GISS GIStemp depend on GHCN for the bulk of their input data (thus the two “agree” so well…) and the GHCN data set is managed by NASA.
No coincidence at all… The “magic sauce” is GHCN. As is admitted in the emails, the CRUt series depends heavily on GHCN. GIStemp depends heavily on GHCN. NOAA (with a NASA data set “manager”) produces GHCN.
All the thermometer location “cooking” that was done to GHCN (moving from the mountains to the sea, moving from the poles to the equator) is reflected in both Hadley CRUt and GIStemp. Same Garbage In, Same Garbage Out.
From:
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/hadley-hack-and-cru-crud/
Comment by Prof. Phil Jones
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/pjones/ , Director, Climatic
Research Unit (CRU), and Professor, School of Environmental Sciences,
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK:
[…]
Almost all the data we have in the CRU archive is exactly the same
as in the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) archive used
by the NOAA National Climatic Data Center
And just who owns that NOAA dataset? Who is “The Data Set Manager”? What I could find looks like a guy at NASA. From:
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/ghcn-california-on-the-beach-who-needs-snow/
down in the comments:
e.m.smith
It took a while to find, but I think I found “who owns GHCN” and “who manages it”.
From: http://gcmd.nasa.gov/records/GCMD_GA_CLIM_GHCN.html
We find that:
GHCN data is produced jointly by the National Climatic
Data Center, Arizona State University, and the Carbon Dioxide
Information Analysis Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The NCDC is a part of NOAA. So I’m not seeing NASA on this list. But…
It goes on to say:
Personnel
SCOTT A. RITZ
Role: DIF AUTHOR
Phone: 301-614-5126
Fax: 301-614-5268
Email: Scott.A.Ritz at nasa.gov
Contact Address:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Global Change Master Directory
City: Greenbelt
Province or State: Maryland
Postal Code: 20771
Country: USA
So it looks to me like it has NASA staff assigned, part of Goddard (though it isn’t clear to me if G. Space Flight Center and G.I.S.S. are siblings or if one is a parent of the other. I suspect GSFC is an underling to GISS. That would have Scott Ritz reporting to Hansen IFF I have this figure out… (And all that personal data is at the other end of the link anyway so I’m not publishing any private data NASA has not already published.)
…
It’s looking to me like GISS has their fingerprints all over the GHCN deletions, with NOAA ether as patsy or passive cooperator.
And as you so aptly put it:
Over to you Senator Inhofe ……..
And I’d also suggest now: Over to you, CEI…
This just in:
Inhofe Begins Climategate Investigation
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=27fe9184-802a-23ad-45e5-8feb948b7bb3
“Washington, D.C.-Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today sent letters to several scientists, some of whom allegedly manipulated data to prove the scientific “consensus” of global warming, as well as to the inspectors general of several federal agencies, notifying them to retain documents related to the release of emails from the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit.
“The stakes in this controversy are significant, as it appears that the basis of federal programs, pending EPA rulemakings, and cap-and-trade legislation was contrived and fabricated,” Sen. Inhofe said. “Moreover, it appears that, in an attempt to conceal the manipulation of climate data, information disclosure laws may have been violated.
“I certainly don’t condone the manner in which these emails were released; however, now that they are in the public domain, lawmakers have an obligation to determine the extent to which the so-called ‘consensus’ of global warming, formed with billions of taxpayer dollars, was contrived in the biased minds of the world’s leading climate scientists.”
The letters are the first step in the investigation of the climate scandal. Last week, emails released by a computer hacker revealed that several leading climate scientists allegedly manipulated climate data and research used by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These scientists also appear to have refused outside access to their raw data, obstructed freedom of information requests, and plotted ways to prevent the publication of papers in peer-reviewed journals by scientists who question global warming alarmism.”
Go to the link to see the full article as well as links to letters that have been sent to a number of parties of interest, including the infamous Dr. Mann as well as to the IG at the EPA. This should be fun.
IMO ethical offenses and likely crimes are being committed every day As Gavin Schmidt distributes more of the fraud and now cover up.
His methods at RealClimate are such that he is producing, for wide distribution, a heavily distorted misrepresentation of the unfolding CRU hack story and AGW.
Schmidt is blocking posts while selecting for admission those posts which either support his objectives or have opposing content which he can most easily dispute.
This effort by Schmidt amounts to the use of public money to perpetrate blatant fraud and deceit.
This must end and Schmidt must be removed.
Nothing less.
Schmidt’s tax funded propaganda is being picked up and repeated.
Chris Horner of CEI discussed the CRU hack with Howard Gould of the Clean Economy Network.
Take a look.
http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/27533307/hot-air.htm#q=guest+chris+horner+videos
Gould is quite deliberate in his parroting Schmidt and contributing to the deceit.
tallbloke (14:15:18) : “Did Michael Mann escape the list by not being a climatologist?”
Mann’s only 193 on the most referenced list, and didn’t appear in the activist email that had the other researchers not in the top 50. (Part C in my post)
If you plug “mann” into the search engine at http://www.eastangliaemails.com/search.php, you get a lot of false positive (e.g., HeilMANN) matches; “michael mann” gets 61 hits, which probably underestimates his involvement. I’m not even a “fornesic” computer investigator, so what I can reveal is merely the tip of the iceberg.
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to suspend the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia from preparation of any Government Climate Statistics until the various allegations have been fully investigated by an independent body.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/UEACRU/
The petition is open to UK citizens and ex-pats.
I wonder if the mole will actually “come out” that would be icing on the cake…
The Australians have completely lost the plot on this issue. But it really does not matter what they do now. They will probably lose billions to companies moving out. Fortunately the US and most other relevant countries will not buy it. Once G Brown loses the next election the whole thing will collapse in UK and likely CRU will no longer exist.
I can’t read through all of this page, but want to respond to the questions about GOTOs and F77.
In the late 80’s I was tangentally involved with a commercial project to port code written in FORTRAN-Y (I believe a cross between FORTRAN IV and FORTRAN-66) to FORTRAN-77 as it was the last version able to handle the GOTOs yet had block conditionals.
IIRC FORTRAN-Y could only execute a single statement following an IF, so the thing to do back then when you needed to execute more than a single line of code was to branch with GOTOs.
Exiting loops with GOTOs was clearly not recommended as indices for the loops were technically “undefined”, but that didn’t stop anyone as the results were consistent.
That code handled portfolio accounting representing about 40% of the volume of the NYSE at the time.
There is a2001 statue about making data public without the proper quality checks. it’s called The Data Quality Act …
The Data Quality Act (DQA) passed through the United States Congress in Section 515 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2001 (Pub.L. 106-554). Because the Act was a two-sentence rider in a spending bill, it had no name given in the actual legislation. The Government Accountability Office calls it the Information Quality Act, while others call it the Data Quality Act.
If legal, I would be willing to contribute money to fund CEI’s lawsuit against NASA GISS. How do I going about doing so? An internet “donation bucket” would be nice.
Spenc BC: …”Who is putting pressure on the main stream media to break this story? No one here in Canada as far as I can see. “…
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com
aaegh
Daddy, why are we killing the polar bears with global warming ?
Oh sweetie, come here and sit down for a minute. You see, certain scientists told the world some lies about this thing called global warming. Then, leaders from around the world supported those lies and told more lies of their own. Even our leaders here in America told us lies to about how this made-up thing would hurt people.
Look peanut, these people did a really bad thing. Their lies have cost trillions of dollars and wasted people’s time and energy all around the world. But now these bad people have been caught lying so don’t worry, the polar bears will be fine and we will all be ok.
Now I want you to go out and play and stop thinking about this stuff some people at school and other places have put in your head. Go out and have fun and just remember, don’t tell lies, they might affect the whole world someday.
End of Story
Eventually, someone needs to start thinking in terms of a RICO suit against the fraudmeisters. Ran across a number earlier in the year (haven’t reverified it yet) that the feds spent around $97 billion on manmade global warming research and mitigation since the mid-1990s.
Limbaugh’s connection to climate science is Dr. Roy Spencer.