From a University of East Anglia Press Release
Professor Phil Jones has today announced that he will stand aside as Director of the Climatic Research Unit until the completion of an independent Review resulting from allegations following the hacking and publication of emails from the Unit.
Professor Jones said: “What is most important is that CRU continues its world leading research with as little interruption and diversion as possible. After a good deal of consideration I have decided that the best way to achieve this is by stepping aside from the Director’s role during the course of the independent review and am grateful to the University for agreeing to this. The Review process will have my full support.”
Vice-Chancellor Professor Edward Acton said: “I have accepted Professor Jones’s offer to stand aside during this period. It is an important step to ensure that CRU can continue to operate normally and the independent review can conduct its work into the allegations.
“We will announce details of the Independent Review, including its terms of reference, timescale and the chair, within days. I am delighted that Professor Peter Liss, FRS, CBE, will become acting director.”
An AP story is here
h/t to Jeff Id of The Air Vent
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Penn State student newspaper talks about an ‘inquiry’ regarding Mann:
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2009/11/30/psu_investigates_climategate.aspx
Perhaps Michael Mann will be the next to walk the plank… he’ll just have time for one quick re-evaluation of the tree rings as he takes the plunge.
Jones’ comments about the investigation gives me chills… he seems pretty self confident and it sounds like HE was the one asking for it?
Sounds like a whitewash for me… AARGH, someone put an END TO THIS MADNESS!
After a quick scan through the Climategate mails it seems like there isn’t much of a link between Jones and the temporary “Acting Director” Peter Liss:
http://www.eastangliaemails.com/emails.php?eid=104&filename=925823304.txt
http://www.eastangliaemails.com/emails.php?eid=122&filename=930934311.txt
http://www.eastangliaemails.com/emails.php?eid=134&filename=937153268.txt
http://www.eastangliaemails.com/emails.php?eid=144&filename=939003588.txt
The most recent of these mails was over 10 years ago. Maybe things are looking up (unlike temperatures!).
Nature report Phil Jones stepping down here: http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/12/director_of_east_anglia_climat.html
Maybe a good place for some of you scientists to initiate a debate and to put down comments for the scientific community to see?
Maybe Dr. Jones, when writing his memior, will use Mike’s Nature trick to hide his decline? 😉
In the eloquent word of Edmond Dantes:
“One”
Kate (13:51:11) :
Maybe I have been reading too many mystery/detective thrillers recently where suspects cut deals with the prosecution to reduce/avoid any punishment. 🙂
BBC just repeated its article on the failure to convince the Brits of climate change. Nick Stern and Benny Peiser comment on it.
They say most governments accept the science but sceptics (Peiser) worry that we are rushing into a poor deision.
“Challenge is convincing the public it is really worth it.”
No mention of CRU or Jones. Seems that news takes time to filter through to the BBC newroom.
The BBC have finally acknowledged that Climategate exists – and means something.
They’ve posted a long article by Mick Hulme (of UAE) and Jerome Ravetz. It must be read to be believed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8388485.stm
No, actually that’s wrong. I read it and I still don’t believe it.
I came across this in the emails and I think LLNL needs to be investigated as well. This is from Ben Santer and if you look at this and other emails, you’ll see that Santer and CRU are part of their own private club:
“In my opinion, Steven McIntyre is the self-appointed Joe McCarthy of
climate science. I am unwilling to submit to this McCarthy-style
investigation of my scientific research. As you know, I have refused to
send McIntyre the ‘derived’ model data he requests, since all of the
primary model data necessary to replicate our results are freely
available to him. I will continue to refuse such data requests in the
future. Nor will I provide McIntyre with computer programs, email
correspondence, etc. I feel very strongly about these issues. We should
not be coerced by the scientific equivalent of a playground bully.”
http://www.eastangliaemails.com/emails.php?eid=934&filename=1226451442.txt
This guy at LLNL is paid by the taxpayer – it’s our property, not his! The FOIA isn’t for picking and choosing to only hand over taxpayer-paid data to the people you like. This whole worldwide crew feel like they’ve got their own fiefdoms with everyone else being peasants. These guys are government employees!
BBC just mentioned the latest development in the Tiger Woods case.
Reporter Andy Gallagher live from Miami – they’re right up with it on that one.
Model of public service on matters of public interest.
George Orwell has said that the biggest lies are lies of omission.
CNN and the rest of their MSM ilk who do not report on Climategate are the biggest liars. They lie constantly and everybody knows it.
Now here is something interesting. Go take a look at RC and they have nothing on Phil stepping down that I saw. No seperate thread and nothing in 2 threads that I glanced at. It’s been over an hour since the news broke, you would think the team would have some type of spin ready to go up on RC when the news was released.
Hopefully, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Keep fighting the good fight!!!
This ones for Al Gore and the rest of the global alarmist warming community.
Good to see the nobel prize went to someone worthy of it……
Even better is this steaming pile of postmodernist apologetics:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8388485.stm
So apparently science no longer needs to be objective or empirical, since that might be politically inconvenient.
Darn it, posted it too fast and didnt include the link-
Here it is.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/10/15/nobel-committee-bypassed-holocaust-savior-al-gore
“Gary Crough (13:56:49) :
Scientists who had their work suppressed are not going to accept a whitewash. In addition, initial investigations will lead to investigations of others … this is the beginning of the end for the individuals who were driven mostly by politics rather than science. ”
I agree. I’ve seen risk adverse administrators take surprising actions once the spotlight was on them. Why should they take a fall for a renegade scientist?
I’d love to see someone start a boycott of universities which refuse to properly investigate their questionable scientists. The boycott should be advertised to parents of college bound students.
Penn State and University at Albany should be the first on the list. If just one of these universities does the right thing, it could start to snowball.
Nice article from Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB30001424052748703939404574566124250205490.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
“Consider the case of Phil Jones, the director of the CRU and the man at the heart of climategate. According to one of the documents hacked from his center, between 2000 and 2006 Mr. Jones was the recipient (or co-recipient) of some $19 million worth of research grants, a sixfold increase over what he’d been awarded in the 1990s.
Why did the money pour in so quickly? Because the climate alarm kept ringing so loudly: The louder the alarm, the greater the sums. And who better to ring it than people like Mr. Jones, one of its likeliest beneficiaries?”
I want my money back!
Jean (13:01:09) :
Harry is the recipient, Ian ‘Harry’ Harris!
The writer I believe comments here!
DaveE.
tallbloke (13:33:20) :
I’m not so sure. The UK public are quite unforgiving when it comes to intellectual dishonesty and enethical behaviour.
At least all us ‘old’ people are. Anyone under 30 falls into the useful stupid category nowadays. At least we have an ageing population so if we educate the grannies to the fr aud they can smack their naughty Mann generation children and cure their grandchildren of the disease. I used to say to my kids (all under 10) that all movies are just pretend but the news is about real things. After being confronted by my children for shouting liars to BBC News 24, I no longer watch news 24 and have educated them about the fraud as best I can given their age. Main stream media is dead for me now and I do my best to educate the stupid.
Keep it up Anthony.
What an idiotic sanction from UEA.
If i run over a person and he dies, do you think it’s enough to abandon my driver licence?
Confine those fudgers to prison, where they belong.
“Mike: No, he won’t be exonerated. His steping down is the first step in a higher education institute to termination. Dr. Jones almost certainly has tenure which means that he cannot be fired without cause. “Cause” would mean a violation of institutional policy, breaking the law, something that would bring disrepute to the institution and the office Dr. Jones holds. From our perspective here, he is guilty of all of these things. But we ‘don’t’ know all the facts so let the University do it’s due dilligence.”
My thoughts too. Either he’s playing the part of the gracious victim because he knows he can, or there’s a giant pile of you kno what about to hit the fan and everyone who can is positioning themselves to get as little splatter on them as possible when it does.
The print edition of the daily express UK are running climatgate on the front page tomorrow, shown on ITV news, tomorrows papers).