This looks like a whitewash to me. It wasn't just about whether they withheld data or even source code. One of their tactics, revealed by the leaked emails, was to publicly berate the scientists who opposed AGW to publish their arguments in peer reviewed journals. In private they worked to get journal editors fired, ignore journals that published opposite views, discredited and hampered the careers of opponents, etc. More importantly, this whole approach of focusing on one little fact and using that to "prove" there was no conspiracy is like focusing on the glove that would not fit in the OJ trial. If you read the leaked emails the pattern seems pretty clear -- these guys were not engaging in science but politics.
Large amounts of government funding for scientific research create an equally large incentive to produce results which are politically useful (or at least, not politically inconvenient). In the case of AGW, the easy "solution" is massive expansion of government regulation in all spheres of life, as well as creation of new markets for government carbon indulgences, an excellent mechanism for enriching politicians and selected corporate cronies.
Any contrarian viewpoints are excluded both explicitly and implicitly, because ideas that resemble what's already been published in journals are those most likely to get funding. The vast majority of scientists aren't gonna jump off the gravy train and potentially sacrifice their tenure.
Comments
This looks like a whitewash to me. It wasn't just about whether they withheld data or even source code. One of their tactics, revealed by the leaked emails, was to publicly berate the scientists who opposed AGW to publish their arguments in peer reviewed journals. In private they worked to get journal editors fired, ignore journals that published opposite views, discredited and hampered the careers of opponents, etc. More importantly, this whole approach of focusing on one little fact and using that to "prove" there was no conspiracy is like focusing on the glove that would not fit in the OJ trial. If you read the leaked emails the pattern seems pretty clear -- these guys were not engaging in science but politics.
Large amounts of government funding for scientific research create an equally large incentive to produce results which are politically useful (or at least, not politically inconvenient). In the case of AGW, the easy "solution" is massive expansion of government regulation in all spheres of life, as well as creation of new markets for government carbon indulgences, an excellent mechanism for enriching politicians and selected corporate cronies.
Any contrarian viewpoints are excluded both explicitly and implicitly, because ideas that resemble what's already been published in journals are those most likely to get funding. The vast majority of scientists aren't gonna jump off the gravy train and potentially sacrifice their tenure.