Legal Commentary

Monbiot: Heads Must Roll at CRU

By Jonathan H. Adler

The Guardian?s George Monbiot is again calling for resignations at the University of East Anglia?s Climate Research Unit.

This is a tough time for climate science. The Guardian?s new revelations about the hacked emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia might help to explain the university?s utter failure to confront its critics. They could also explain why the head of the unit, Phil Jones, blocked freedom of information requests and proposed that material subject to those requests be deleted. . . .

The vast body of climate science still shows that manmade climate change is real and that it presents a massive challenge to human survival. But those of us who seek to explain its implications and call for action must demand the highest possible standards from the people whose work we promote, and condemn any failures to release data or admit and rectify mistakes. We do no one any favours ? least of all ourselves ? by wasting our time promoting false claims.

Can a call for the resignation of IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri be far behind? [UPDATE: Nope.  Greenpeace UK is calling for him to step down.]

UPDATE: The NYT reports Penn State University climate scientist Michael Mann has been ?largely cleared? by an internal university investigation.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on February 03, 2010 (boomark / email).