Climategate Commentary

Our correspondent Peter Newnam points us to an article in The Spectator, The global warming guerrillas, which summarizes the consequences of Climategate for the Anthropogenic Global Warming movement, and also discusses the role of blogs and amateurs in the investigation of various claims made by the leaders of the movement.

It was not Private Eye, or the BBC or the News of the World, but a retired electrical engineer in Northampton, David Holland, whose freedom-of-information requests caused the Climategate scientists to break the law, according to the Information Commissioner. By contrast, it has so far attracted little attention that the leaked emails of Climategate include messages from reporters obsequiously seeking ammunition against the sceptics. Other emails have shown reporters meekly changing headlines to suit green activists, or being threatened with ostracism for even reporting the existence of a sceptical angle: ‘Your reportage is very worrisome to most climate scientists,’ one normally alarmist reporter was told last year when he slipped briefly off message. ‘I sense that you are about to experience the “Big Cutoff” from those of us who believe we can no longer trust you, me included.’

With only one or two dozen readers, this blog is not at the forefront of the debate, but we nevertheless feel like we are in good company. We will continue our Home Climate Analysis for the pleasure of it, and because we feel part of a change in the way science is reviewed.

UPDATE: Conflict of interest over at The BBC.

UPDATE: Following Glaciergate we now have Africagate.