The CRU Hack

The ongoing story of the hack of emails from the Climate Research Unit in Britain goes on...

The British government has set up two committees to look into what the emails are actually saying:

One is looking for evidence of scientific fraud.

The other is looking at any breaches of ethics: Was data withheld illegally? Was pressure put on publications, etc. to stop publishing of contrary data?

My predictions?

-  The first committee will find no evidence of fraud of any kind.

- The second will find minor cases of unethical behaviour, but no actual blocking of anything.


There's also a third ongoing investigation - Who actually did the hacking?

So far:

They've discovered that the hacks were done from the eastern US or Canada.

They know that over 90% of the emails were ignored, undoubtedly because there was nothing that could be used by Deniers.

They're sure it was done by a very professional group, at the level of a national security agency.
(There are many leads showing a connection to an ex-KGB group.)

There was a lot of money involved.

My predictions?

It will be proven that the hacks were done by ex-KGB agents, being paid by some oil-funded group like the Heritage Institute, expressly to cast doubts on Climate Science just before the Copenhagen meeting.

My final prediction?

No matter how damning the evidence showing the hacks were illegal, and no matter how innocent the CRU scientists are shown to be, it will make NO DIFFERENCE to the Deniers, who will go on claiming the science is corrupt, and the hacks prove it.

And real scientists will have to be ever so much more careful in what they say, slowing down research even more...