Breaking News Story: CRU has apparently been hacked – hundreds of files released

Watts Up With That? ^ | 19/11/2009 | Anthony Watts

[jsh3180]

UPDATE: Response from CRU in interview with another website, see end of this post.

The details on this are still sketchy, we’ll probably never know what went on. But it appears that University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit has been hacked and many many files have been released by the hacker or person unknown.

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/annrep93/cru.jpg

UPDATED: Original image was for Met Office – corrected This image source: www.cru.uea.ac.uk

I’m currently traveling and writing this from an airport, but here is what I know so far:

An unknown person put postings on some climate skeptic websites that advertised an FTP file on a Russian FTP server, here is the message that was placed on the Air Vent today:

We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps.

We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents

The file was large, about 61 megabytes, containing hundreds of files.

It contained data, code, and emails from Phil Jones at CRU to and from many people.

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.

Here is some of the emails just posted at Climate Audit on this thread:

http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=7801#comments

I’ve redacted email addresses and direct phone numbers for the moment. The emails all have US public universities in the email addresses, making them public/FOIA actionable I believe. From: Phil Jones To: mann@vxxxxx.xxx Subject: Fwd: John L. Daly dead Date: Thu Jan 29 14:17:01 2004

From: Timo H‰meranta To: Subject: John L. Daly dead Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 12:04:28 +0200 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4510 Importance: Normal

Mike, In an odd way this is cheering news ! One other thing about the CC paper – just found another email – is that McKittrick says it is standard practice in Econometrics journals to give all the data and codes !! According to legal advice IPR overrides this.

Cheers Phil

“It is with deep sadness that the Daly Family have to announce the sudden death of John Daly.Condolences may be sent to John’s email account (daly@john-daly.com) “ Reported with great sadness

Timo H‰meranta xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Timo H‰meranta, LL.M. Moderator, Climatesceptics Martinlaaksontie 42 B 9 01620 Vantaa Finland, Member State of the European Union

Moderator: timohame@yxxxxx.xxx Private: timo.hameranta@xxxxx.xx

Home page: [1]personal.inet.fi/koti/hameranta/climate.htm

Moderator of the discussion group “Sceptical Climate Science” [2]groups.yahoo.com/group/climatesceptics

“To dwell only on horror scenarios of the future shows only a lack of imagination”. (Kari Enqvist)

“If the facts change, I’ll change my opinion. What do you do, Sir” (John Maynard Keynes)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Prof. Phil Jones Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0)xxxxxx School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) xxxxxx University of East Anglia Norwich Email p.jones@xxx.xx.xx NR4 7TJ UK —————————————————————————-

References

1. http://personal.inet.fi/koti/hameranta/climate.htm 2. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/climatesceptics From: Phil Jones To: ray bradley ,mann@xxxxx.xxx, mhughes@xxxx.xxx Subject: Diagram for WMO Statement Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:31:15 +0000 Cc: k.briffa@xxx.xx.xx,t.osborn@xxxx.xxx

Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm, Once Tim’s got a diagram here we’ll send that either later today or first thing tomorrow. I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline. Mike’s series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998. Thanks for the comments, Ray.

Cheers Phil

Prof. Phil Jones Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) xxxxx School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) xxxx University of East Anglia Norwich Email p.jones@xxxx.xxx NR4 7TJ UK

—————————————————————————- From: Jonathan Overpeck To: “Michael E. Mann” Subject: letter to Senate Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 16:49:31 -0700 Cc: Caspar M Ammann , Raymond Bradley , Keith Briffa , Tom Crowley , Malcolm Hughes , Phil Jones , mann@xxxxx.xxx, jto@xxxxx.xx.xxx, omichael@xxxxx.xxx, Tim Osborn , Kevin Trenberth , Tom Wigley

Hi all – I’m not too comfortable with this, and would rather not sign – at least not without some real time to think it through and debate the issue. It is unprecedented and political, and that worries me.

My vote would be that we don’t do this without a careful discussion first.

I think it would be more appropriate for the AGU or some other scientific org to do this - e.g., in reaffirmation of the AGU statement (or whatever it’s called) on global climate change.

Think about the next step – someone sends another letter to the Senators, then we respond, then…

I’m not sure we want to go down this path. It would be much better for the AGU etc to do it.

What are the precedents and outcomes of similar actions? I can imagine a special-interest org or group doing this like all sorts of other political actions, but is it something for scientists to do as individuals?

Just seems strange, and for that reason I’d advise against doing anything with out real thought, and certainly a strong majority of co-authors in support.

Cheers, Peck

Dear fellow Eos co-authors, Given the continued assault on the science of climate change by some on Capitol Hill, Michael and I thought it would be worthwhile to send this letter to various members of the U.S. Senate, accompanied by a copy of our Eos article. Can we ask you to consider signing on with Michael and me (providing your preferred title and affiliation). We would like to get this out ASAP. Thanks in advance, Michael M and Michael O

______________________________________________________________ Professor Michael E. Mann Department of Environmental Sciences, Clark Hall University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22903 _______________________________________________________________________ e-mail: mann@xxxxxx.xxx Phone: (434) 924-7770 FAX: (434) xxx-xxxxx http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/people/mann.shtml

Attachment converted: Macintosh HD:EOS.senate letter-final.doc (WDBN/MSWD) (00055FCF)

–

Jonathan T. Overpeck Director, Institute for the Study of Planet Earth Professor, Department of Geosciences Mail and Fedex Address: Institute for the Study of Planet Earth 715 N. Park Ave. 2nd Floor University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 direct tel: +xxxx fax: +1 520 792-8795 http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Faculty_Pages/Overpeck.J.html http://www.ispe.arizona.edu/ It appears that the proverbial Climate Science Cat is out of the bag.

Developing story – more later

UPDATE1: Steve McIntyre posted this on Climate Audit, I used a screen cap rtaher than direct link becuase CA is overloaded and slow at the moment.

UPDATE2: Response from CRU h/t to WUWT reader “Nev”

http://briefingroom.typepad.com/the_briefing_room/2009/11/hadleycru-says-leaked-data-is-real.html

The director of Britain’s leading Climate Research Unit, Phil Jones, has told Investigate magazine’s TGIF Edition tonight that his organization has been hacked, and the data flying all over the internet appears to be genuine.

In an exclusive interview, Jones told TGIF, “It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and emails.”

“Have you alerted police”

“Not yet. We were not aware of what had been taken.”

Jones says he was first tipped off to the security breach by colleagues at the website RealClimate.

“Real Climate were given information, but took it down off their site and told me they would send it across to me. They didn’t do that. I only found out it had been released five minutes ago.”

TGIF asked Jones about the controversial email discussing “hiding the decline”, and Jones explained what he was trying to say….

[stayathomemom]

Rush talking about it now!

[TomGuy]

Rush Limbaugh is talking about this story now on his radio program.

FYI

[blam]

Rush is covering this subject on his radio program as I type.

[reagandemocrat]

The leak provides cover for Obama’s failure at Copenhagen.

[devistate one four]

It’s like Jefferson said about the tree of liberty.

We will survive and not let the commie pricks in the gov. again!

[theDentist]

Thanks.

My, what an interesting tag line you have there.

[Thrownatbirth]

Every carbon credit purchased on global markets by nations, multi-national corporations, companies and individuals may be worthless by Monday.

Ha!

[greedo]

Here we go:

 RealClimate: The CRU hack

[theDentist]

AM stuck in office cubicle. I hope it shows up on his weekend report...

[444Flyer]

"UPDATE 8

The warmist scientists at RealClimate show how carefully they’ve screened and manipulated their site to muffle any scepticism:

From: “Michael E. Mann” To: Tim Osborn, Keith Briffa Subject: update Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 16:51:53 -0500 Cc: Gavin Schmidt

guys, I see that Science has already gone online w/ the new issue, so we put up the RC post. By now, you’ve probably read that nasty McIntyre thing. Apparently, he violated the embargo on his website (I don’t go there personally, but so I’m informed).

Anyway, I wanted you guys to know that you’re free to use RC in any way you think would be helpful. Gavin and I are going to be careful about what comments we screen through, and we’ll be very careful to answer any questions that come up to any extent we can. On the other hand, you might want to visit the thread and post replies yourself. We can hold comments up in the queue and contact you about whether or not you think they should be screened through or not, and if so, any comments you’d like us to include.

You’re also welcome to do a followup guest post, etc. think of RC as a resource that is at your disposal to combat any disinformation put forward by the McIntyres of the world. Just let us know. We’ll use our best discretion to make sure the skeptics dont’get to use the RC comments as a megaphone…"

[delapaz]

yes, nothing in slashdot yet, which this should be right up their alley, unless they don’t want their (liberal) narratives disturbed.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

I find it appalling and chilling how the Progressively Left Mediots, PLM, have blocked or downplayed the sinister reality of George $ore$$ for a couple of decades.

[FreedomOfExpression]

The leak provides cover for Obama’s failure at Copenhagen.

Perhaps it preserves some of Obama's street cred, but it does a LOT of damage to the religion of global warming.

[444Flyer]

11/19/09

“Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out”

“Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.

At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average.

Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The Earth’s average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year.

Ironically, climate change appears to have stalled in the run-up to the upcoming world summit in the Danish capital, where thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, business leaders and environmental activists plan to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Billions of euros are at stake in the negotiations.

Reached a Plateau

The planet’s temperature curve rose sharply for almost 30 years, as global temperatures increased by an average of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.25 degrees Fahrenheit) from the 1970s to the late 1990s. “At present, however, the warming is taking a break,” confirms meteorologist Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in the northern German city of Kiel. Latif, one of Germany’s best-known climatologists, says that the temperature curve has reached a plateau. “There can be no argument about that,” he says. “We have to face that fact.”

Even though the temperature standstill probably has no effect on the long-term warming trend, it does raise doubts about the predictive value of climate models, and it is also a political issue. For months, climate change skeptics have been gloating over the findings on their Internet forums. This has prompted many a climatologist to treat the temperature data in public with a sense of shame, thereby damaging their own credibility...”

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662092,00.html

Rut Roh! Vat das dis mean for de Copenhagen?!

[east1234]

BTT

[reagandemocrat]

Yup. The spin begins:

“”More interesting is what is not contained in the emails. There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to ‘get rid of the MWP’, no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no ‘marching orders’ from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords. The truly paranoid will put this down to the hackers also being in on the plot though.””

But they refuse to publish any of the emails...

[6ppc]

...and Drudge is silent.

Drudge has it. A link to the Guardian article. It's just not the headline. Look in the left column about three or four articles down.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Got the files downloades...

Lot's of stuff...

Lets put this out first:

*****************************EXCERPT**********************

From CRU strategic review

Agenda for strategic review team (SRT) meeting
20th December 2001, 10 am, CRU library

****************************snip*****************************

The mission of the Climatic Research Unit is: • to undertake pioneering research on the nature, predictability and impact of natural and anthropogenic climate change, maintaining a position as a world authority in this field;

• to act as a primary source of information, data, analysis tools and training on climate-related issues; and

• to support sustainable responses to the challenges and opportunities created by climatic variability and change, through the provision of expert assessment and advice to all sectors of society.

[Seditious2U]

Thanks so much for posting this. I Managed to snag a copy off of Megaupload. There’s nothing better in the morning than to discover a pack of lies are unraveling. Here’s to hoping it makes the mainstream news and starts waking people up. People tend to wake up rather peeved when they discover they’ve been lied to.

I keep hoping there is some hope left before they run us all into the ground.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just dropping this here for possible future reference:

Welcome to Environmental Sciences

The School of Environmental Sciences ....( Study Abroad in England | University of East Anglia)....is one of the longest established, largest and most fully developed Schools of Environmental Sciences in Europe.

****************************************** snip**************************

Our holistic approach to teaching and research, integrating physical, chemical, biological, social and geotechnical sciences into the study of natural and human environments, is truly a modern philosophy for the new millenium. In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise the School received the highest possible research ranking, a position we have maintained and strengthened in the 2008 Assessment. 

Seventy percent of our activity was classified as internationally excellent (3* or 4*), and 25% as world leading (4*) (equivalent to 5** in 2001 terms). Within the group of departments with which we were assessed - Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences - the School has the highest research output in the combined 3* and 4* category, and the joint highest 4* volume.

At a lecture at the John Innes Centre in December 2005, Professor Sir David King, the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor claimed that “The School of Environmental Sciences at UEA is the strongest in the world”.

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