About Climate Audit

UPDATE: I’m happy to report that Steve writes in with an update on the tragic accident that sent him to New Zealand. It is good news. – Anthony

UPDATE2: Steve asked me to intervene, saying he had issues with the renewal of the domain. I intervened with the domain registrar last night, paid the outstanding bill, and all is working again today (Sunday).  – Anthony

My inbox has exploded in the short time I went out for coffee this morning. Steve McIntyre’s Climate Audit is now going to a park page for Aplus.net

1. No, it hasn’t been hacked.

2. Steve simply forgot (or didn’t get a reminder email) to renew his annual domain name fee. I set it up for him back in 2009 after Climategate but he gets the email notices and is billed to pay for the fee. He must have missed them, or is traveling again and out of touch, or his credit card date expired.

3. Stuff happens. Patience.

4. For the moment, I have set it to use climateaudit.wordpress.com  rather than climateaudit.org. Simply click on the link above and you’ll see all is well. You may need to refresh / clear your DNS cache or reboot to see it.

UPDATE:

5. Dr. Ross McKitrick tells me via email:

He’s in NZ dealing with an emergency. His daughter was seriously injured in a swimming accident and underwent lifesaving surgery. She’s recovering but they’ll be there for a while yet.

I’ll attempt to renew the domain name myself with the hosting company.

6. The domain appears to have been renewed, it appears Steve is on it already:

Domain ID:D105658560-LROR

Domain Name:CLIMATEAUDIT.ORG

Created On:31-Jan-2005 13:07:55 UTC

Last Updated On:02-Feb-2013 08:41:20 UTC

Expiration Date:31-Jan-2014 13:07:55 UTC

It will take about 8 hours for the DNS to update. I’ll set it back to the primary domain then in the wordpress.com dashboard.

I wish Steve and his family Godspeed, as I’m sure the entire Skeptical community does. I’ll have updates when/if I know anything further.

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UPDATE2: Steve writes in to me (along with Lucia and Andrew Montford) with this update:

Thanks for the kind wishes. Here is an update on Emily’s excellent progress from a couple of days ago that we sent to family and family friends, in which I should have included you. It has been harrowing.  She broke and dislocated her neck (C5 vertebra) in a swimming accident plus concussion. Many people do not walk away from the hospital after such an injury; the risk was permanent paralysis.  She is an adventurous girl.  She spent last winter snowboarding in northern Kashmir near Taliban country, sometimes hearing gunshots.  The injury occurred in a relatively innocuous situation, horsing around on a beach.  We left Canada about two weeks ago fearing the worst. I’ll be returning this week. Emily’s recall appointment is in 2 weeks. She had a New Zealand health card and her direct costs have been covered.  

Cheers, Steve

It is unclear to me if Steve wanted me to include the much longer update or not, so in deference to privacy, I’m not including it. Suffice it to say that his daughter stands to make a full recovery and will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. – Anthony