HERE is the best synopsis of the Climategate scandal that I have read (and I have read most of them), especially with regard to the fraudulent "science" of it all.
"What you do, if you are a serious scientist operating according to the established method, is attempt to falsify your hypothesis. Test it to destruction; carry out serious attacks on its weakest points to see if they hold up. If they do... then you have a theory that can be published, and tested, and verified by other scientists. If you don't, you throw it out.
The "scientists" who perpetrated the "global warming" fraud approached their "science" in exactly the opposite manner as the approach described above. They formulated a theory and then did whatever they had to do with their data to "prove" it.
What the world has now seen with the expose of the "global warming" scam is a new spin on an old saying: "Figures can lie and liars can figure." The discipline of science itself has taken a massive hit over the past two weeks and it could take years for science to regain credibility with the public. A lot of that burden must fall on honest scientists, and the first and most important thing they must do is scream for the heads of Michael Mann, Phil Jones, and the rest of the fraudsters. I guess we'll see if they have the integrity to do it....
Are you a scientist?
I'm not trying or going to try to make any excuses, lame or otherwise, for the authors of the stolen email from CRU. They should have been more circumspect, partly realizing that anything they said, if made public, might get used against them. A lot of climate scientists have been profoundly naive about how this issue is being presented to the general public. It is clear that the skeptical side is dominating the debate. Science was way behind the ball in addressing the tobacco-cancer link, Scientific Creationism, and this (and several other issues of public import). Ivory tower scientists don't understand the how capable a motivated opposition can be in influence public opinion -- and they really underestimate how motivated the opposition is. And in this era of the Internet, they don't get how easily it is to spread information that you want a particular set of people to find.
The discipline of science itself has taken a massive hit over the past two weeks and it could take years for science to regain credibility with the public.
I agree.
A lot of that burden must fall on honest scientists, and the first and most important thing they must do is scream for the heads of Michael Mann, Phil Jones, and the rest of the fraudsters. I guess we'll see if they have the integrity to do it....
With Pachauri calling the hackers "saboteurs", I don't see this happening directly. What they might hope is that the internal investigations lead to censure, thus forcing other scientists to take over the leading edge.
Are you a scientist?
I came pretty close and thought I would be, either academic or industrial, but when Plan A didn't work out and I tested Plan B, I found out that I didn't really have the temperament for academic science and I then followed a more lucrative, though probably more boring, Plan C. (It's in my profile.) Short answer: maybe I once was, sorta, but not now.