Climate madness - Skulduggery undermines the case for global warming

Chicago Tribune ^ | February 25, 2012 | Masthead Editorial

[neverdem]

Earlier this month, the Internet lit up with a tantalizing whodunit. Someone had leaked to bloggers confidential internal fundraising and strategic documents from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based think-tank that questions global warming orthodoxy.

The apparent goal: to discredit and embarrass those who raise doubts about the science behind climate change.

Heartland officials cried foul, asserting that at least one of the documents was forged. They vowed to track down the leaker and pursue charges.

This week, Peter Gleick saved them the trouble of a search. He confessed that he had assumed a false identity to obtain some of the documents and then leaked them. That sounded plausible: Heartland had said last week that someone got the documents by calling its Chicago headquarters and posing as a Heartland board member seeking information, the Tribune reported.

So who is Gleick? Some anonymous cyberhacker with a grudge against climate skeptics? Not quite. Gleick is a prominent environmental activist, head of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Oakland, Calif. He's also a former MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" recipient, and ... chair of the American Geophysical Union's Task Force on Scientific Ethics.

Yes, ethics.

In his Huffington Post blog confession, Gleick apologized for using dishonest tactics, but said "the scientific understanding of the reality and risks of climate change is strong, compelling, and increasingly disturbing, and a rational public debate is desperately needed."

Gleick said his judgment was "blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts — often anonymous, well-funded, and coordinated — to attack climate science and scientists and prevent this debate. ..."

Two points here. First: Yes, a rational public debate is desperately needed. But Gleick's skulduggery in obtaining documents and leaking them to bloggers doesn't advance that goal...

[neverdem]

Chicago Tribune???

[reasonisfaith]

The Chicago Tribune’s strategy is to paint Gleick as the fraud while pretending the overall GW agenda is still genuine.

[Ronin]

Well, yeah...

Although it does seem they are trying to give themselves some wiggle room, do note they are still waving the AGW flag in the last sentence.

Actually, I expect that a number of formerly “science is settled” mouthpieces are going to be edging out of the room in the next few weeks/months. The evidence isn’t there, they are attempting to defend the indefensible, and the public is starting to notice.

No one is going to want to be left holding the bag.

[reasonisfaith]

Liars will always eat their own when it becomes necessary.

As an insider, Gleick should turn on them (the Global Warming kingpins) and publicize any evidence of GW fraud he has in his files.

[Rembrandt]

I imagine Gleick is just a token sacrifice; this allows the Trib to claim that hallowed status of “impartiality.”

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping,...passing it on.

[Intolerant in NJ]

...chair of the American Geophysical Union's Task Force on Scientific Ethics...Scientific Ethics - apparently an oxymoron to the Warmists.....

[1010RD]

The Chicago Tribune gave us Barak Obama. They made him a Senator. It’s a disgusting paper that plays both sides of the fence in Chicago’s cesspool politics.