Gleick is being invetigated by the FBI for a crime, not an ethics slip.
In “Berkeley-based scientist causes ethics storm over climate change documents,” the San Jose Mercury-News reports:
… Naomi Oreskes, a geologist and history professor specializing in the history of science at the UC San Diego, noted that in the 1990s, the Heartland Institute took money from the tobacco industry and mounted a campaign to claim the dangers of secondhand smoke were overblown.
Calling the group’s work denying climate change “nefarious,” she said she hopes that Gleick’s missteps don’t dissuade other scientists from speaking out.
“If you believe your work matters to the world, and you believe the climate is changing due to human activities, as virtually all scientists do, you have to communicate that to the public,” she said.
Oreskes, co-author of “Merchants of Doubt,” a 2010 book about industry efforts to muddy science, noted that top climate scientists have been hauled before Congress, had their emails stolen and been personally vilified by organizations funded by fossil fuel industries.
But, she said, they must remain ethical.
“It’s easy to get upset, to get angry, to get frustrated,” she said, “but we all know those aren’t the best grounds for response.”
Click for Fred Singer’s take on Oreskes:
…Oreskes and Conway claim to be academic historians, yet they have consistently ignored factual information, have not bothered to consult primary sources, have never interviewed any of the scientists they try to smear, and generally have operated in a completely unprofessional way…
The Chicago Tribune has reported that the FBI was called in by Heartland however the FBI to my knowledge has not opened an offical investigation. Has an offical FBI investigation begun?