McIntyre accused by University of Queensland Prof of CRU break in
Watts Up With That from Andrew Bolt’s blog at the Herald Sun

Professor John Quiggin complains of smears by sceptics:

In recent years, science and scientific institutions have come under increasingly vociferous attack, with accusations of fraud, incompetence and even aspirations to world domination becoming commonplace. Scientists have been constrained in fighting back by the fact that they are ethically constrained to be honest, whereas their opponents lie without any compunction.

Ethically unconstrained, Professor John Quiggin smears a sceptic:

writing my previous post on the “Climategate” break-in to the University of East Anglia computer system, I remained unclear about who was actually responsible for the break-in theft of the emails, which were then selectively quoted to promote a bogus allegation of scientific fraud. Looking over the evidence that is now available, I think there is enough to point to Steven McIntyre as the person, along with the actual hacker or leaker, who bears primary moral responsibility for the crime.

So, to sum up, McIntyre organised the campaign which led to the creation of the file, obtained information from the CRU file system by means he declined to reveal, received the stolen emails shortly after the theft and made dishonest and defamatory use of the stolen information. Whether or not he was directly involved in the theft, or merely created the opportunity and benefited from the proceeds is impossible to determine, and essentially irrelevant.

OK professor, let’s see your evidence beyond this missive.

Somebody needs to educate Quiggin on the CRU ftp security blunder that was “the mole”. He doesn’t get it, and then proceeds to use that as “evidence” against McIntyre. It’s comical.

Here’s Professor Quiggin’s page at the University of Queensland.

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Climate Realists reports here: Sad news: George Monbiot, the high priest of the AGW cult, is feeling frustrated and depressed. He is oppressed by the realisation that, as the politicians phrase it, he is not getting his message across. And this blog, at least in a small way, bears some part of the responsibility. From his pontifical throne in the Vatican of global warming - The Guardian - he has issued an anathema. Quoting from a recent anti-AGW scam posting by me, he observes: “The attack on climate scientists is now widening to an all-out war on science.” Don’t get carried away, George. It is only an all-out war on bogus science, such as the global warming superstition you champion.

Paul Erlich, the master of exagerration and the epitome of a false prophet was given the platform by Nature and in his op ed he begins “The integrity of climate research has taken a very public battering in recent months. Scientists must now emphasize the science, while acknowledging that they are in a street fight. Climate scientists are on the defensive, knocked off balance by a re-energized community of global-warming deniers who, by dominating the media agenda, are sowing doubts about the fundamental science. Most researchers find themselves completely out of their league in this kind of battle because it’s only superficially about the science. The real goal is to stoke the angry fires of talk radio, cable news, the blogosphere and the like, all of which feed off of contrarian story lines and seldom make the time to assess facts and weigh evidence. Civility, honesty, fact and perspective are irrelevant.

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ABC News in Australia reports an Independent body to review UN climate panel

United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon has announced a respected international body will conduct an independent review of UN climate science after a global warming report was found to have errors. But Mr Ban says the errors should not affect the conclusion that human activities are changing the climate and that greenhouse gas emissions should be cut urgently. “The threat posed by climate change is real, and nothing that has been alleged or revealed in the media recently alters the fundamental scientific consensus on climate change,” he said. The verdict is in before the jury is even assembled.

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Concerns raised over Institute of Physics climate submission to Parliament

A statement submitted by the Institute of Physics (IOP) to a parliamentary inquiry on climate change continues to draw criticism, with one senior physicist saying that it is “not worthy” of the organization. Others have complained that the statement appears to play into the hands of climate “sceptics”, as it criticizes scientists for withholding climate data when requested using the UK’s Freedom of Information Act. The IOP, which owns the company that publishes physicsworld.com, has responded by making it clear that it believes in man-made climate change and that its submission was criticizing instead the practices of the climate scientists at the centre of the inquiry. See the IOP page and comments here. See Watts Up With That coverage and comments here.

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And in this fairytale story from down under, AUSTRALIA’s two leading scientific agencies released a report today showing Australia has warmed significantly over the past 50 years, and stating categorically that “climate change is real”. The State of the Climate snapshot, drawn together by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology partly in response to recent attacks on the science underpinning climate change, shows that Australia’s mean temperature has increased 0.7 degrees since 1960. No mention of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Great Pacific Climate Shift, the historic solar cycle or Warwick Hughes’ analysis of rural stations (with no UHI) all of which remain standing in contradiction of this.

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At a briefing on Capitol Hill yesterday, Stanford University communication professor Jon Krosnick presented his ‘analysis’ estimating the impact of “ClimateGate” on public perceptions of climate change and of climate scientists. The briefing was co-sponsored by the high priests of the church of AGW in the The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Meteorological Society (AMS), and the American Statistical Association (ASA).  You missed nothing if you were not able to attend.

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Ands finally in It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here: The Big Battle Over Climate Science in Discover Magazine, the king of the fraudsters, Michael Mann is grilled.
On Tom Nelson’s Blog

[Q] Who might have done the hacking?
[Michael Mann] It appears to have been extremely well orchestrated, a very professional job. There also appears to have been a well-organized PR campaign that was all ready to go at the time these e-mails were released. And that campaign, involving all sorts of organizations that have lobbied against climate change legislation, has led some people to conclude that this is connected to a larger campaign by special interests to attack the science of climate change, to prevent policy action from being taken to deal with the problem.
...
[Q] Judith Curry has been an outspoken critic of your work and of a lot of climate researchers in general.
[Mann] Did you ask Judith to turn over her e-mails from the past three years? Once she does that, then she’s in a position to judge other scientists. Until she does that, she is not in a position to be talking about other scientists. Glass houses. Look, I’ll just say this. I’ve received e-mails from Judith that she would not want to be made public.
...
[Q] What is the worst-case scenario? Are we talking about the risk of our demise as a species?
[Mann] That’s what scares me, yeah.  yeah and maybe the other shoe to drop

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Cold Mid-Latitude Winter May have Implications on Hurricane Season
By Joseph D’Aleo, March 13, 2010

The blocking high pressure in the Polar Regions that dominated the winter and produced the record low arctic oscillation and a bitter winter in Mid-Latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere had effects further south that could have implications this hurricane season (below, enlarged here).

This pushed the subtropical high south of normal and made it weaker than normal. Winds were less than normal and cloudiness and precipitation were suppressed in the subtropics.

Mean winter pressure (above, enlarged here) - less than normal with center south of normal .

Mean winter surface winds (above, enlarged here) were weaker than normal through lower subtropics leading to less mixing of water and the development of a shallow pool of warm surface water and less upwelling of cold water off Africa from normal stronger northerly winds.

Also with the high pressure suppressed south of normal, cloudiness (above, enlarged here) was suppressed due to subsidence which further allowed more sunshine to warm the water (below, enlarged here).

Also last season tropical activity was suppressed by El Nino. Tropical storms are a heat compensation mechanism, removing excess tropical ocean heat built up through the summer and peaking in the late summer and early fall and transporting that heat north in the form of sensible and latent heat in tropical storms. Less heat was removed last season than in an active season.

The big question is whether El Nino hangs on long enough to affect this season. Seasons after El Nino years tend to see a big rebound in activity (below, enlarged here).

Most ENSO models suggests it dies this summer. However westerly wind bursts continue to maintain a suppressed thermocline in the central Pacific with Kelvin waves that carry warm water east. Looks like at least one more El Nino bounce though with the warmest water more towards the central Pacific. El Ninos as you know and as we saw last summer, tend to reduce Atlantic activity and landfall threat by increasing the shear in the Atlantic basin.

Longer term, a negative PDO mode (temporarily weakened by El Nino), should ensure the next major ENSO event is La Nina perhaps later this year. See post here.