Climate researchers are in need of immediate legal assistance to prevent their private correspondence from being exposed to Chris Horner and the American Tradition Institute who are using Freedom of Information (FOI) to harass researchers.
(For context please see: http://wapo.st/pQg0JC and http://wapo.st/oiua7V)
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has recently stated: “the sharing of research data is vastly different from unreasonable, excessive Freedom of Information Act requests for personal information and voluminous data that are then used to harass and intimidate scientists.” The complete AAAS statement is available athttp://bit.ly/p04sIq
A donation button has been set up at http://profmandia.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/donation
So far we have collected almost $2000 of the $10,000 needed to file the legal papers. This fundraising will be an ongoing effort so the $10,000 is our immediate short-term goal. A gift of $25, $100, or more will go a long way to ensure that our top scientists can continue their important work without the constant harassment designed to slow them down.
UPDATE per Scott Mandia, 09/13:
We have reached out initial target goal of $10,000. The excess amount will be moved to a more permanent legal defense fund that we are establishing to help climate scientists with any future legal expenses. We hope this new permanent structure will also allow donors to send money as tax-deductible.
I’m in for $100 or more.
Done. $100
Scientists have done so much for the world without asking for much in return.
ATI doesn’t make much of an an effort to disguise the irony of their transparently cynical objective in its latest news release (‘Hockey Stick’ Creator Michael Mann Seeks Court’s Help to Ensure No Inquiry, No ‘Exoneration’) – “To the extent Dr. Mann, the university, or their obstructionist backers like Union of Concerned Scientists continue to argue he has been “cleared” or “exonerated,” or that any substantive investigation has taken place, those pleadings are undermined by their persistent efforts to squelch inquiry. As a result, all the public sees is an effort to sweep Climategate revelations under the rug in order to preserve the biggest taxpayer-financed gravy train for science and academia in decades.”
http://bit.ly/pfdAhC
Let’s see where your article is coming from. The American Tradition Institute is administrated by Paul Chesser, also director of Climate Strategies Watch (a co-sponsor of the Heartland Institute), and Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (which is sponsored by the oil and gas industry). That’s more or less hardcore of the Climate Change Denial machinery.
Err. Can you tell us what you mean with the biggest “gravy train for science and academia in decades”?
Alone the GMO industry is spending more money for research than the worldwide climate science, only that we can read studies which should prove that 5 foot beside a GM soya field would be no more impact on other species, and other bullshit like that. All for the sake of multi-billion profits of a handfull of private companies which has made the farmers 100% depending on them.
Meanwhile climate science is essential for the future of the whole planet, including all humans and all species. And again a small minority of reckless and only profit oriented individuals is holding up overdue action against AGW for the sake of satisfying just their own greed.
DISGUSTING!!!
mrsircharles, Err. Not sure if you’re attributing the “gravy train” quote to my position. If so, rest assured, you and I agree. Read my comment again.
I’m realising that I indeed had some problems with quotation marks in your comment. My apologies for partly mistaking your comment.
Point taken. My writing often confuses me too. Next time I’ll quote a quote containing embedded quotes by putting it in a separate paragraph. Cheers.
Not to worry. Was my mistake. That article just drove me mad 😉
Cheers.
Heaven forbid that climate scammers feeding at the public teat should have to let the folks paying for their work see what they’re up to.
The “leading” climate alarmists swim in a shockingly inbred little pond, awash in intellectual corruption, and so divorced from rigorous science that they seem genuinely unaware of what it is and how it is supposed to work.
I am reminded of the email from Phil Jones to Michael Man in which Jones expresses amazement that, “McKittrick says it is standard practice in Econometrics journals to give all the data and codes !!”
Note Jones’ double explanation point!
But the climatologists had no intention of doing likewise. Jones continued by saying, with evident relief, “According to legal advice IPR overrides this.”
In a later email, to Mann and Gavin Schmidt, Jones said that the UK climate organizations are coordinating with one another to resist Freedom Of Information requests for their data.
Of course, if you don’t release your data and your code, other scientists can’t check it. (Which is obviously why they don’t want to release it.)
Before Climategate, I thought it was normal practice in all scientific disciplines to release your data (after publishing), to enable other scientists to verify and critique and build upon your work. Apparently that hasn’t been the case in climate research for a long time, if it ever was.
s/explanation/exclamation/
must be my bed time
“The “leading” climate alarmists swim in a shockingly inbred little pond, awash in intellectual corruption, and so divorced from rigorous science that they seem genuinely unaware of what it is and how it is supposed to work.”
You are asserting that a comment by Phil Jones in a 2004 email about how to deal with orchestrated FOI requests invalidates the conclusions of the most intensely scrutinized, multi-discipline, international scientific analysis ever undertaken. Multiple inquiries have proven that germane validated data has not been withheld or falsified. Michael Mann didn’t even delete his emails as requested. What data/code isn’t in the public domain that would discredit climate science?
http://bit.ly/oCH8Td