British climate change propagandists ‘conspired to keep sceptics in the dark’

‘I’m getting hassled by a couple of people to release the CRU station temperature data. Don’t any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a Freedom of Information Act !” – Professor Phil Jones, Climatic Research Unit Director

Climate-change sceptics claim emails they have discovered prove that data which did not support global warming was suppressed

Daily Mail | Nov 23, 2009

By Daniel Martin

Scientists at a British climate change research centre discussed ways of dodging Freedom of Information Act requests to release temperature data, it is claimed.

Leaked emails and documents appear to show that scientists at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit conspired to keep US climate change sceptics in the dark about the existence of the act.

The private messages have been seized upon by climate-change sceptics, who claim one email includes an admittance that robust data to prove the world is warming up simply doesn’t exist, and that data which did not support global warming was deliberately suppressed.

The embarrassing emails came to light after hackers targeted the CRU and published the files. Many are from the unit’s director, Professor Phil Jones, including one in which he appears to suggest using a ‘trick’ to massage years of temperature data to ‘hide the decline’.

In another, he says: ‘I’m getting hassled by a couple of people to release the CRU station temperature data. Don’t any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a Freedom of Information Act !”

It seems to show how scientists were able to persuade the FOI officer that requests from a climate- change sceptic, Stephen McIntyre, who runs a website called Climate Audit, should not be treated seriously.

‘When the FOI requests began here, the FOI person said we had to abide by the requests,’ the email says. ‘It took a couple of half-hour sessions to convince them otherwise.

‘Once they became aware of the types of people we were dealing with, everyone at UEA became very supportive. I’ve got to know the FOI person quite well and the chief librarian – who deals with appeals.’

Another email seems to show that the CRU discussed ways of evading the Freedom of Information Act entirely. The act allows organisations to decline requests for information if the requests are ‘repeated or vexatious’.

A spokesman for the University of East Anglia said: ‘The selective publication of some stolen emails and other papers taken out of context is mischievous and cannot be considered a genuine attempt to engage with this issue in a responsible way.’

Professor Jones confirmed that the email in which he talked of a ‘trick’ was genuine. He said: ‘The word ‘trick’ was used here colloquially as in a clever thing to do. It is ludicrous to suggest that it refers to anything untoward.’

A further email from Mr Jones raises questions over how the Freedom of Information process was being adhered to at the university.