It’s a conspiracy — and a “street fight.”
Steve Connor reports in The Indpendent (UK):
Mann believes the theft of the emails was not the work of a random hacker, but part of a sophisticated campaign. “It was a very successful, well-planned smear campaign intended … to go directly at the trust the public had in scientists,” he insists. “Even though they haven’t solved the crime of who actually broke in, the entire apparatus for propelling this manufactured scandal on to the world stage was completely funded by the fossil-fuel front groups”…
Climate contrarians argued that Mann and his colleagues were concealing their research methods because they had something to hide. In reply, Mann insists that he has been as open as he can about data and methodology, but the aim of these requests has more to do with intimidation than openness. “What they are trying to do is to blur the distinction between private correspondence and scientific data and methods, which of course should be out there for other scientists to attempt to reproduce.
“I think it’s intentional and malicious. It’s intended to chill scientific discourse, to intimidate scientists working in areas that threaten these special interests,” he says. “It’s the icing on the cake if they can also get hold of any more private correspondence that they can mine and cherry pick. It’s a win-win for them.” Why an obscure graph published in a scientific journal should enrage so many people has been the subject of much internet conspiracy (or genuine scientific debate, depending on your point of view)…
But if the aim of the climate contrarians was to browbeat Mann and his ilk into submission, then it clearly hasn’t worked. He is publishing his own book on the hockey stick controversy later this year and he shows every sign of continuing the battle. “Scientists have to recognise that they are in a street fight,” he warns.
Fortunately, we’ve already identified the person behind Mann’s “sophisticated campaign”:
And don’t forget to get your “I’m FOIA” T-shirt. Supplies are limited.
A conspiracy? Nah. Anonymous, maybe. Anonymous is not a force to be reckoned with.
I’ll agree with Mann. There are four possibile answers for who is FOIA. I have listed them from least to most likely
1: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy – It wouldn’t have lasted this long. Someone would want to be a hero and come out and claim it.
2: Anonymous – either in whole or in part, the computer terrorist group is a force to be reckonned with. However, they always claim responsibility even for grossly illegal actions. They would be trumpeting this from the mountain top.
3: Independent Hacker – Unlikely. The sheer volume of work to sift through all those emails combined with the care to stay on topic does not point to a malicious data thief.
4: Whistleblower – Either an IT person or climate researcher at the UAE. Possibly two or three people, but no more than that. Someone dedicated to the revelation due to a strong belief in either the freedom of information or in natural causes of climate change. I consider this to be most likely because the data was carefully sifted to remove irrelevant nonsense such as bad jokes, baby pictures, meeting notices, and the like that makes up most office e-mail. No other group would take the kind of effort to do this aside from one who was entrusted with this data and takes the responsibility seriously.
As usual, a climatologist reaching conclusions on the basis of data that isn’t there.
Hey, Mann. Don’t compare us sane skeptics to those insane conspiracy theorists.
When all else fails, blame some mysterious, unseen supervillain In his point of view, this is much easier than admitting that he can’t support his beliefs with the existing data, nor can he wait 50-100 years to see the first test of his conclusions.
Folks like Mann, who has appointed himself as a savior of the universe, get very pissy when the folks he is supposedly saving say NO THANKS!!! They get even more pissy when those folks challenge the idea that they need saving at all. Like most arrogants and elitists, Mann thinks that the rules are for the little people and his brilliance shouldn’t be hamstrung by the steps of the scientific method.
Observe: when one’s defense is non-existent one’s only recourse is to go on the offensive and demean the mysterious, unidentifable conspirators who dared reveal the true shallowness of one’s character.
Because of self-serving crooked Global Warming scientists like Mann , the public has lost all respect for scientists..