Not sure what to make of this revelation

[Brainfade]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=9145220

Computer hackers have broken into a server at a well-respected climate change research center in Britain and posted hundreds of private e-mails and documents online — stoking debate over whether some scientists have overstated the case for man-made climate change. The University of East Anglia, in eastern England, said in a statement Saturday that the hackers had entered the server and stolen data at its Climatic Research Unit, a leading global research center on climate change. The university said police are investigating the theft of the information, but could not confirm if all the materials posted online are genuine. More than a decade of correspondence between leading British and U.S. scientists is included in about 1,000 e-mails and 3,000 documents posted on Web sites following the security breach last week. Some climate change skeptics and bloggers claim the information shows scientists have overstated the case for global warming, and allege the documents contain proof that some researchers have attempted to manipulate data. The furor over the leaked data comes weeks before the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, when 192 nations will seek to reach a binding treaty to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases worldwide. Many officials — including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon — regard the prospects of a pact being sealed at the meeting as bleak. In one leaked e-mail, the research center's director, Phil Jones, writes to colleagues about graphs showing climate statistics over the last millennium. He alludes to a technique used by a fellow scientist to "hide the decline" in recent global temperatures. Some evidence appears to show a halt in a rise of global temperatures from about 1960, but is contradicted by other evidence which appears to show a rise in temperatures is continuing. Jones wrote that, in compiling new data, he had "just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e., from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline," according to a leaked e-mail, which the author confirmed was genuine. One of the colleague referred to by Jones — Michael Mann, a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University — did not immediately respond to requests for comment via telephone and e-mail. The use of the word "trick" by Jones has been seized on by skeptics — who say his e-mail offers proof of collusion between scientists to distort evidence to support their assertion that human activity is influencing climate change. "Words fail me," Stephen McIntyre — a blogger whose climateaudit.org Web site challenges popular thinking on climate change — wrote on the site following the leak of the messages. However, Jones denied manipulating evidence and insisted his comment had been taken out of context. "The word 'trick' was used here colloquially, as in a clever thing to do. It is ludicrous to suggest that it refers to anything untoward," he said in a statement Saturday. Jones did not indicate who "Keith" was in his e-mail. Two other American scientists named in leaked e-mails — Gavin Schmidt of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and Kevin Trenberth, of the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado — did not immediately return requests for comment. The University of East Anglica said that information published on the Internet had been selected deliberately to undermine "the strong consensus that human activity is affecting the world's climate in ways that are potentially dangerous." "The selective publication of some stolen e-mails and other papers taken out of context is mischievous and cannot be considered a genuine attempt to engage with this issue in a responsible way," the university said in a statement.

[Sachinism]

interesting.

[Dirty_South]

hmmmm

[Sachinism]

If you want to download the documents, use any one of these links (they're all the same) http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M9ZYCIQD http://rapidshare.com/files/309836663/FOI2009.rar.html http://www.zshare.net/download/68745365e1290a67/ http://www.badongo.com/file/18502650 http://depositfiles.com/en/files/u4hik7k3j http://hotfile.com/dl/18133995/254c9db/FOI2009.rar.html http://www.2shared.com/file/9307025/e76fa6ee/FOI2009.html

[Ram]

It does seem quite odd that a big network of hackers would target the servers of a climate research centre. What could the hackers possibly be looking for? There’s no explicit commercial angle or monetary benefit that one can gain from hacking into a climate research institution, which leads one to think this could have been orchestrated by the anti climate-change lobby. Who knows.. But conspiracy theories apart, lets come back to the main issue. This is not the first time scientists have been accused of fudging data no climate change. Before giving credence to any of these allegations, we must ask ourselves what the well respected scientists all over the world have to gain, by pushing forward a fictitious climate change agenda? This isn’t like the Weapons of Mass destruction mirage that the Bush administration sold its own countrymen and the rest of the world so that that they can invade a country for commercial purposes. But we’re talking about educated, revered scientists here. Surely, these men aren’t prone to making up stuff just to get into the news or win the noble prize! And anyone who has had even a remote exposure to scientific practices of data collection, research and analysis will say that its only natural that there are discrepancies in the data collected and the conclusions reached. That is quite simply how science works. Individual scientists can be wrong, but science as a whole can never be wrong, it has never failed mankind. And the odd instance apart, the overwhelming consensus among the scientific community has been that our planet’s climate is changing due to man’s interference and we need an immediate reversal of trend to preserve our way of life, as we know it. Even if they ultimately turn out to be wrong (which could still happen), can we take the risk of ignoring them now? Is that a punt worth taking, given the truly disastrous consequences they’re predicting? I do not know of many sane people in this world who give an ‘Yes’ for an answer. And just to add on, even if you’re to ignore the climate angle of the research, green technology could yet herald the beginning of new era of scientific advancement and can be the engine of the next generation of high-paid, high-valued jobs that could yet power our capitalistic train for the next 2,3 decades, just like digital technology, biotechnology and mass communications have been in the past. So, in every which way, it makes total sense to pay serious attention to what the scientists are saying and take action, coz, quite simply, these guys simply don’t make up stuff like the politicians.

[Sachinism]

Not all hackers hack for the sake of money. A lot of hackers work to expose people. Look at Anonymous vs Scientology