Hadley CRU Hacked

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(Update – the Examiner article linked to below stated that this was the UEA Hadley Climate Research Centre. Hadley is not in the title. The leaked documents are from the UEA’s Climate Research Unit (CRU). Hadley is a separate Met Office organisation. Thanks to a very agitated Pete Pisspoor in the comments for pointing that out.
Further update – CRU has provided a lot of the “climate simulations data” for Hadley’s LINK project. It has also ” developed datasets in conjunction with Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office”. Search HadCRU and HadCRUT on Google.)

And now, back to our original programming…

This could get very interesting:

The University of East Anglia’s Hadley Climatic Research Centre appears to have suffered a security breach earlier today, when an unknown hacker apparently downloaded 1079 e-mails and 72 documents of various types and published them to an anonymous FTP server. These files appear to contain highly sensitive information that, if genuine, could prove extremely embarrassing to the authors of the e-mails involved. Those authors include some of the most celebrated names among proponents of the theory of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

CRU has confirmed that it has been hacked and it has cancelled all existing passwords. If you see or hear any mention of this on the BBC please point it out in the comments so we can monitor how this story is spun, both by CRU and the BBC.

Update 13.45. Andrew Bolt has been picking through the emails and documents and, if they are all genuine, the information in them is simply astonishing.

There’s a document by CRU’s Professor Phil Jones which shows that he was so concerned by Freedom Of Information requests for raw data that he was contemplating ways to remove key information and reconstruct the data to make it fit the preferred conclusions.
There’s an email from American climate scientist Tom Wigley advising Professor Jones how to manipulate some data to emphasise warming trends.
There’s an email from Jones telling his colleagues to delete incriminatory emails.
There’s another from Jones in which he tells a colleague that he’s used the same “trick” as Michael Mann (Mr Hockey Stick) “to hide the decline”, and in yet another he calls the reported death of a climate sceptic “cheering news”.
There’s an email from Mann himself promising senior CRU staff that they can use the RealClimate website to post articles and he will ensure the censorship of any comments from sceptics challenging what they’ve written.
There’s an email from senior IPCC scientist Kevin Trenberth in which he asks, “Where the heck is global warming?…The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.”
There’s an email in which CRU staff promise to blackball scientists from the IPCC report whose work doesn’t conform to their alarmist predictions: “keep them out somehow – even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is !”

If the BBC’s environment correspondents are too upset to touch the story, perhaps the BBC’s Open Secrets blogger Martin Rosenbaum will do something about it. Deleting data and emails demanded by FOI requests is, after all, illegal.

Update 17.00. The BBC has reported it here. Hat tip to 1327 in the comments who points out, as does Mr Eugenides, that the potentially explosive contents of the emails and documents are not mentioned.

Update 17.30. The Guardian’s report does mention the email contents. There’s also a quote from a very angry sounding Michael Mann: “I’m hoping that the perpetrators and their facilitators will be tracked down and prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows.”

Update 17.40. Our old friend Jo Abbess responds: “I’ve read a number of them, and there’s nothing untoward in anything. It’s all a hoax to make you think that the Science is unravelling or that the Scientists are misbehaving (aka “lying”).” She adds: “I await put-downs from the Climate Science community after the weekend.” I’m not sure they’ll wait that long to start the “put-downs”, Jo.

Update 18.30. (With a reminder of the health warning until it’s all proved to be kosher) One of the leaked emails from Michael Mann addressing the recent “What happened to global warming? article by the BBC’s Paul Hudson which caused such outrage among the econuts (emphasis added) :

From: Michael Mann
To: Stephen H Schneider
Subject: Re: BBC U-turn on climate
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:00:44 -0400
Cc: Myles Allen , peter stott , “Philip D. Jones” , Benjamin Santer , Tom Wigley , Thomas R Karl , Gavin Schmidt , James Hansen , trenbert , Michael Oppenheimer

extremely disappointing to see something like this appear on BBC. its particularly odd, since climate is usually Richard Black’s beat at BBC (and he does a great job). from what I can tell, this guy was formerly a weather person at the Met Office.

We may do something about this on RealClimate, but meanwhile it might be appropriate for the Met Office to have a say about this, I might ask Richard Black what’s up here?

mike

Looks like Richard Black is considered a reliable sort by this bunch. I wonder if they’re in contact with him now, coordinating their response. (Hat tip to a guest in the comments.)

Update 19.00. The email from the IPCC’s Kevin Trenberth (mentioned above @13.45 update – follow link to Andrew Bolt to view) in which he says, “where the heck is global warming?… The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we cant” comes from the same email exchange relating to Paul Hudson’s article. Trenberth seems to be backing Hudson.

Update 19.30. Reminder: “Climate ‘hockey stick’ is revived” by Richard Black.

Update 20.00. Richard Black has a round-up of Copenhagen-related news on his blog, time stamped 18.16 UK time today. No mention of the CRU documents. (Last update this evening from me.)

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

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59 Responses to Hadley CRU Hacked

  1. cassandra king says:
    November 20, 2009 at 9:55 am

    The ‘climate audit’ and ‘watts up with that’ websites have most of the damning information online now, go and visit and see what these fraudsters have been upto.

    The Hadley fraud’N’lies centre for guzzling research bribes/gifts and staffed with such fraudsters as Phil Jones, it will make you laugh it will make you cry but above all it will make you sick!

       0 likes

  2. Grant says:
    November 20, 2009 at 10:05 am

    I have just dipped into this and it is dynamite.  Proof that the warmists are faking, fiddling and destroying data. 
    This must be a lead story on all BBC News   ” Climate change scientists shown to be fraudsters “. 

       0 likes

    • PetePassword says:
      November 20, 2009 at 2:46 pm

      Yeah, dipped your toe in, failed to understand anything, so thought you’d add your illiterate voice to the cacophony of idiots who think they/ve got something at last. Since your first attack, deny it’s happening, failed as people can see it is happening, you fall back on your second line of defence, well it’s not our fault. Very grown up, about a four year old’s reasoning.

         0 likes

  3. Asuka Langley Soryu says:
    November 20, 2009 at 10:20 am

    Pretty big story. I wonder how the world’s biggest, richest news outfit will report it. Assuming they ever do. Eid al-Adha is only a week away so all of their resources are probably tied up with that.

       0 likes

  4. 1327 says:
    November 20, 2009 at 10:46 am

    I bet the head of news has passed this one upstairs to higher management for advice on how to handle it ! My guess is they will wait to see if any other parts of the MSN go for it rather like they did with the MP’s expenses scandal. If say the Telegraph take it up then they will have no choice but to run something on it but if they don’t it will be quietly buried.

       0 likes

  5. theJoff says:
    November 20, 2009 at 11:32 am

    I wouldn’t get too carried away here.  It seems too good to be true.  If it’s a fake I think this will backire on the sceptics’ side.  So I think caution must be exercised.

       0 likes

  6. Anonymous says:
    November 20, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    If true, this represents scientific fraud on a massive scale.

    What some people have suspected all along.

       0 likes

    • PetePassword says:
      November 20, 2009 at 2:44 pm

      And been totally wrong about all along. The only fraud is perpetrated by sites like this repeating lies none of their readers could ever understand or question.

         0 likes

  7. PetePassword says:
    November 20, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    My you people do get your knickers in a twist don’t you? Any of you actually seen these documents? Thought so. Well I have, any intelligent person could track them down, and I can tell you it’s all run of the mill stuff any university would have [but none of you illiterates would know what the inside of a university looked like, having failed your GCSEs. But don’t let facts get in the way of your obsession and back patting each other. And this at a time when parts of Cumbria are several metres under flood water! You do realise that hacking is a crime and the hacker is very likely to be caught and prosecuted?
    Oh and by the way. There’s no Hadley Centre at UEA, Hadley is a government establishment hundreds of miles away from Norwich, so you couldn’t even get that right. Utterly pathetic.
    What fascinates me is why you are all obsessed with the BBC, which the majority of British people defend and are proud of. Oh, not British even? I bet you’re mostly yanks and ozzies, two countries with plenty of reasons to deny it’s our fault, and where most of the oil-funded disinformation emanates from.
    Sad, no hopers all of you. Go get a job, or if no one will employ you, do some charity voluntary work to keep you busy and stop you indulging in this fantasy cult you all think makes you special. It doesn’t. You’re all wankers.

       0 likes

    • cassandra king says:
      November 20, 2009 at 3:08 pm

      Is that you Phil Jones?

      Do you work at the Hadley CRU fraud’N’lies centre? I sense anger and despair in your post, almost as if you have had so long in control of the lies and fraud its come as a shock that the lies and fraud have been found out.

      Keith(one tree)Briffa is a fraud and a liar.

      James Hansen is a liar and a fraud.

      Michael mann is a lying fraud and those cheating liars who work at the Hadley lies’N’fraud centre for crooked charlletons are in fact frauds and liars. The fraudulant BBC will try and cover up and hide the story for as long as it can but the story is out, I hope they get the sack.

      How do you them apples comrade?

         0 likes

    • Marky says:
      November 20, 2009 at 3:18 pm

      Oh dear things not going your way today Pete? Boo Hoo

         0 likes

    • Asuka Langley Soryu says:
      November 20, 2009 at 3:27 pm

      You seem pretty angry, princess. Is it because your weird religion is in the process of flinging itself apart? Shhh – don’t cry; I’m sure you can find some other hilarious faggotry to occupy your angry little existence with when Anthropologial Global Warming is inevitably dead and buried. How does Salsa dancing take your fancy? I hear a lot of assholes do that.
      Anyway, good luck with whatever it is. If you need me, I’ll be over here pointing and laughing at you and your nutty, bedwetting friends.

         0 likes

    • Guest says:
      November 20, 2009 at 6:46 pm

      ‘You people…’ Bless. I am immediately seduced to read further and embrace the power of your argument.

         0 likes

  8. 1327 says:
    November 20, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    Whats up PetePassword are you worried you won’t get your next research grant ?

       0 likes

    • PetePassword says:
      November 20, 2009 at 2:40 pm

      I have no vested interests, I’ve just been aware of it for thirty years, I’d bet that’s longer than you’ve existed. So shut up sonny and find something you understand to moan about. Are you bunking off school? You sound like a ten year old with behaviour problems.

         0 likes

      • Anonymous says:
        November 21, 2009 at 7:01 pm

        <img style=”width: 24px; height: 24px;” src=”http://js-kit.com/blob/daf9fe86920c214fdb4ef7256911b062-24×24.png”/><img src=”http://cf.js-kit.com/images/stars/admin-comment.png” title=”Este usuario es un administrador”/> PetePassword >>You sound like a ten year old with behaviour problems.<<Would that we could all be as cool, calm and collected as you Pete, old boy.  One of the main reasons that has caused me to be sceptical about global warming is the mindless abuse of its proponents to anyone who disagrees with them.  If the evidence was there to prove your case Pete, you wouldn’t feel the need to insult anyone who disagrees with you.Hippiepooter

           0 likes

    • D B says:
      November 20, 2009 at 2:59 pm

      “Whats up PetePassword are you worried you won’t get your next research grant ?”

      Heh! I downloaded the documents this morning. Unlike Pete Pisspoor I’ve been too busy to got through them, hence the link to Bolt. The email folder alone contains more than a thousand emails, so to have “seen them”, as Pete claims, he must be the one who is unemployed (or, as you suggest, sitting with his thumb up his butt doing “research” somewhere). The anger in his comment indicates that this has got the alarmists very agitated.

         0 likes

  9. 1327 says:
    November 20, 2009 at 2:36 pm

    OK we now have a story ..

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8370282.stm

    Nothing about the contents of the emails though. Now lets see what tomorrows papers make of this.

       0 likes

    • PetePassword says:
      November 20, 2009 at 2:43 pm

      Well that’s blown the theory that the BBC would ignore it. What else is wrong about this ‘story’? Hadley Centre not at UEA is the most telling. None of the emails is anything but a normal email between scientists and friends, and none of your business. Do you people usually spy and commit privacy crimes?

         0 likes

      • Marky says:
        November 20, 2009 at 3:04 pm

        “Do you people usually spy and commit privacy crimes?”

        “Any of you actually seen these documents? Thought so. Well I have”

        So it’s ok for you to commit privacy crimes…

           0 likes

      • cassandra king says:
        November 20, 2009 at 3:12 pm

        “commit privacy crimes” huuuh? is that like commiting fraud and trying to cover it all up?

           0 likes

      • cassandra king says:
        November 20, 2009 at 3:16 pm

        Well Pete Password, having never heard of you before now why dont you inform us of your real name and what your job is?

        How about not hiding behind a childish fake name, I am sure people would take you more seriously if you manned up and showed your interest.

           0 likes

  10. 1327 says:
    November 20, 2009 at 2:46 pm

    Yup just normal emails that academics send to each other saying how they have modified raw data and asked colleagues to delete emails. Nothing to see at all really just normal University email traffic.

       0 likes

  11. 1327 says:
    November 20, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Yup just normal emails that academics send to each other saying how they have modified raw data and asked colleagues to delete emails. Nothing to see at all really just normal University email traffic.

       0 likes

  12. 1327 says:
    November 20, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    Whoops that comment has appeared twice. PetePassword – Will the oil companies pay me twice for it now ?

       0 likes

    • cassandra king says:
      November 20, 2009 at 3:30 pm

      Being an oil company shill myself, they only pay for one post at a time.
      Perhaps the alarmists could offer us double?

         0 likes

    • Marky says:
      November 20, 2009 at 3:46 pm

      The cheque is in the post. Drink more for double pay.

         0 likes

  13. John Horne Tooke says:
    November 20, 2009 at 3:51 pm

    “I’ve seen the file, it appears to be genuine and from CRU. Others who have seen it concur- it appears genuine. There are so many files it appears unlikely that it is a hoax. The effort would be too great.”
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/19/breaking-news-story-hadley-cru-has-apparently-been-hacked-hundreds-of-files-released/

    Who is “Pete Password” and why does he show up here all of a sudden?

       0 likes

    • 1327 says:
      November 20, 2009 at 4:28 pm

      >Who is “Pete Password” and why does he show up here all of a sudden?

      I often wonder who these characters are as well. They tend to appear when a big story appears on the blogs then try their best to be trolls so the comments become abusive and meaningful discussion ends.

      “Pete Password” was different though you could sense the real anger and hurt in his posts hence my comment about losing his grant.

      Anyway lets not be diverted but keep an eye on the Beeb. If past experience is any guide we are about to see a masterclass in disinformation and spin. 

         0 likes

    • Marky says:
      November 20, 2009 at 4:42 pm

      “Who is “Pete Password” and why does he show up here all of a sudden?” 
       
      Probably just someone who sees BBC, EU, Climate Change as terrific ‘opportunities’ no matter who is trampled on or how many people are lied to.

         0 likes

  14. Anonymous says:
    November 20, 2009 at 6:13 pm

    From one of the emails (with regards the sceptical story a month or two ago):

    ”   extremely disappointing to see something like this appear on BBC.  its particularly odd, since climate is usually Richard Black’s beat at BBC (and he does a great job). from what I can tell, this guy was formerly a weather person at the Met Office.

    We may do something about this on RealClimate, but meanwhile it might be appropriate for the Met Office to have a say about this, I might ask Richard Black what’s up here?

       mike”

    That’s Michael “hockey stick” Mann talking. The e-mail was sent to a who’s who of Global Warmists including James Hansen and Gavin Schmidt. Looks like the BBC have been in the warmists pocket for a long time.

       0 likes

  15. Will says:
    November 20, 2009 at 8:10 pm

    I emailed Paul Hudson about the consternation that his BBC Online article had caused. He confirmed that the hacked emails involving him were genuine

       0 likes

  16. Idiotboy says:
    November 20, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    Predictably, the BBC have managed to avoid any mention of the content of the hacked e-mails, and major on the illegality of the activity which resulted in them coming into the public domain.

    They adopted a similar stance on the MP’s expenses debacle until they were embarrassed into reporting the facts surrounding it.

    I wonder how long they will stick to their “see no evil..” line.

    I do hope that the other MSM outlets do not bottle this one.

       0 likes

  17. Anonymous says:
    November 20, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    foxnews.com now has it as the top story.

    Very difficult for the MSM this one. So many “environment correspondent” jobs and so much “green” ad money on the line. Scientific scandal of the century it may well be but when you’re looking at losing major income streams there will be a want to brush this under the carpet.

       0 likes

  18. TooTrue says:
    November 20, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    This is extraordinary stuff. I’m not clued up on global warming, or the lack of it, but the pro-warming spin from the BBC for so many years and its refusal to give the other side a fair hearing was painfully obvious.

    BBC science correspondent Dr. David Gregory posted here quite a bit a few years ago on the issue and, as a believer, came under much flak for his stance. He was generally polite and restrained in his responses. I posted a comment on his blog, leaving a link to this comprehensive article by DB. Be interesting to see if he responds.

       0 likes

  19. Philip says:
    November 20, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    Meanwhile over at al-Beeb..

       0 likes

  20. Andrew Johnson says:
    November 20, 2009 at 9:57 pm

    Well, there is a lot to take in with the whole climate change scenario – try googling 9/11 and Hurricane Erin. Study the data. Then decide why NO ONE will report this. I sent a press release round over 1 year ago – it was even censored by alternative news websites such as Infowars and OpEdNews. And oh yes, the BBC is extremely biased – and a presever of myths. Google checktheevidence for more of the back story to the Hurricane Erin/911 research.

       0 likes

  21. Martin says:
    November 20, 2009 at 10:38 pm

    The BBC drug addicts are spinning the latest flooding as “climate change”

       0 likes

    • Fat Face Penguin Seal says:
      November 20, 2009 at 11:01 pm

      Thats funny, I didnt hear that on the 10pm news…

      Was it on radio 5 or have you found the ‘off’ button?

         0 likes

      • Marky says:
        November 21, 2009 at 12:15 am

        “climate change” to blame for the latest flooding was on the 6pm news along with the expect to see more of this line. Er but we haven’t had any warming for 10 years…

           0 likes

  22. David Preiser (USA) says:
    November 20, 2009 at 10:40 pm

    The Warmists will take the same line of defense that Dan Rather and his fellow fraudsters did with those fake memos about Bush and the National Guard:  “fake, but accurate”.  Even though the Warmists have committed fraud (possibly criminal), they’ll say that “Climate Change” caused by man-made carbon dioxide is still real.  Since their intent was “true”, they have done no wrong.

       0 likes

  23. Anonymous says:
    November 20, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    Oh dear!

    “Update 2309: Because comments were posted quoting excerpts apparently from the hacked Climate Research Unit e-mails, and because there are potential legal issues connected with publishing this material, we have temporarily removed all comments until we can ensure that watertight oversight is in place.”

       0 likes

  24. Marky says:
    November 21, 2009 at 1:09 am

    “Harrabin’s Notes: E-mail arguments”

    “My contacts at the CRU tell me the e-mails are being taken out of context and insist they are part of the normal hurly-burly of conversations between scientists working on some of the most complicated questions of our times.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8371597.stm

       0 likes

    • John Horne Tooke says:
      November 21, 2009 at 2:13 am

      This line has to be the best

      “These demands are likely to surface in the US Senate, where climate change sceptics and their supporters are holding up the energy and climate bill which President Barack Obama needs before he can sign a legally binding agreement over cutting emissions.”

      This is valued judgement.

         0 likes

  25. John Horne Tooke says:
    November 21, 2009 at 2:11 am

    I have been through a lot of these emails and they do not sound very scientific to me.
    There is comments on “right wing corporate interests”, emails to a leading journal telling them not to include “sceptics” research, telling them to delete emails, to hide data, fiddling data, commenting on “cheering news” of the death of a “sceptic” etc.

    What struck me is the lack of  science.

       0 likes

    • cassandra king says:
      November 21, 2009 at 5:24 am

      You are Right JHT, I was struck by the petty, small minded and mean spirited attitude but I also sensed a fear of being found out, the e-mails clearly show human frailty and weakness in action, they couldnt bring themselves to admit the truth so they engage in the very human activity of denial,groupthink,prejudice and self delusion, it seems that to protect their positions they quickly resorted to the easy answer of fraud, the ever decreasing circle of lies and self delusion.

         0 likes

  26. Marky says:
    November 21, 2009 at 3:01 am

    Bishop Hill has a summery of the some of the emails. http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2009/11/20/climate-cuttings-33.html

    “Mann thinks he will contact BBC’s Richard Black to find out why another BBC journalist was allowed to publish a vaguely sceptical article. (1255352257)”

       0 likes

  29. John Anderson says:
    November 21, 2009 at 2:27 pm

    Some things the hacked emails appear to show :

    – discussions on how to prevent science journals publishing articles criticising AGW theories or the underlying methods

    –  discussions on how to dodge FOIA requests – or fudge the answers

    – discussions on how to coordinate rapid responses to anything critical of AGW in the wider media

    – pre-screening of comments on “open” AGW blogs,  deleting anything critical.

    And all that is scientific method ?   Paid mostly by taxpayers’ dollars and pounds ?

       0 likes

  30. Peter Gill says:
    November 22, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    I wandered into this blog quite by accident. However having got here I must say how impressed I am at PetePassword’s comments. He sounds a really nice guy albeit a bit shy and modest. How cruel some people have been to this magnificent example of scholarship. As a mere physicist I am spellbound by his breadth of knowledge and his undoubted authority. It comes as no surprise that such a person would, at no small risk to his own reputation, be supportive of those poor people at CRU who have been so effectively attacked by some imaginative and wholly illegal hacker. If only the BBC could get PetePassword to do a few pieces but that is dreaming as Pete clearly has a world to save and we cannot do without him.

       0 likes

  31. Peter Gill says:
    November 23, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    I am not sure whether PetePassword is the Peter Simmons who is a photographer in Leominster or the East Anglian Lecturer or someone else. However this polite, shy and retiring individual man or woman has clearly got a masterly grip on the facts. From what he/she says it is my opinion that he/she would fit seemlessly into BBC journalism. However with a brain the size of a small planet I doubt that this type of carreer would be of interest to him/her. After all if your main concern is the study of everything and you have got the answer 42 what would be the point.

       0 likes

  32. Anonymous says:
    November 23, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    Its the way the BBC ignores all of the smaller parties, even when Labour, Tory and Lib-dems are disgraced that is bizarre. Hasn’t the time come for all the smaller parties who work on the basis of policies to join together in a single message: <a href=”http://pol-check.blogspot.com/2009/11/vote-for-change-dont-vote-for-them-vote.html”>Tory, Labour and Lib Dem, I will not vote for them again!</a>

       0 likes