Toxins in the Global Warming Water

Now that all is right with the Global Warming alarmist crowd, it's interesting to note that the reinstatement of Phil Jones at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) is more political than it is scientific.  The claims that the science has emerged unscathed tells the real story.

Gerald Warner elaborates;

Move along now, please… Nothing to see here…” was the predictable burden of Sir Muir Russell’s investigation into Climategate. Are we surprised? Any other conclusion would have made world headlines as a first for the climate change establishment. This is the third Climategate whitewash job and it would be tempting to see it as just as futile as its predecessors. That, however, would be to underrate its value to the sceptic cause, which is considerable.

This is because Russell’s “Not Guilty” verdict has been seized upon as an excuse to reinstate Phil Jones at the University of East Anglia CRU, this time as Director of Research. That is very good news. It spells out to the world that the climate clique looks after its own; that there is no more a culture of accountability and job forfeiture for controversial conduct in AGW circles than there is in parliamentary ones; that it is business as usual for Phil and his merry men. Or, to put it more bluntly, the brand remains toxic.

True to form, the self-assessment crew found nothing wrong and exonerated the Director.  Warner concludes;

The problem for the more sophisticated warmist propagandists is that, on this occasion, the attempt to construct a Cameron-style “modernised” climate scare party collided with the primeval instinct of the British academic and public-sector establishment to protect its own. It shares with the Spanish Legion the principle of never abandoning its wounded. None of our boys will ever be taken out by the sceptics, is the rule, no matter how badly they goof up.

So, this is an important and encouraging development for everybody dedicated to blowing the AGW scam out of the water. It means one of the principal pillars of the IPCC that might have been cosmetically repaired now remains irretrievably compromised. The next few years will be critical for the survival of the AGW superstition: it is now, partly due to Climategate and partly to the global recession, fighting for survival. This latest blunder significantly lessens its prospects of pulling through. A big thank you to Professor Edward Acton and the climate establishment at the University of East Anglia and elsewhere, without whose purblind sense of entitlement the eventual overthrow of this false orthodoxy might not have been possible.

Let's hope Warner's assessment is correct. Long term I suspect he is, but a dying foe is a dangerous foe and the global warming crowd will likely try to seize this at an opportune moment and re-ignite fears around the globe. How? I have no clue, but I don't doubt they will once people's attention has been turned from the economic troubles to the environment, just as they will seize on the Gulf oil disaster in the weeks and months to come.  What else have they got to do?