Climategate Breaking News: CRU Scientist Phil Jones steps down pending investigation

CRU Director Phil Jones at the center of fraud and scandal

The University of East Anglia in Great Britain has announced that the director Phil Jones of their Climate Research Unit (CRU) will step down pending an investigation into fraudulent claims on Global Warming.  Almost two weeks ago, computer hackers found and released scathing documents and email (now known as Climategate) that confirmed speculation from skeptics: The warming CRU shared with the IPCC was not real.  The email from Jones at the center of this controversy, mentioned a trick Michael Mann (Penn State University) used to change old temperature data to make current temperatures look warmer.

The danger here is that this information has been the benchmark for the environmental movement. It was shared and recirculated by NASA Goddard, which has been threatened with lawsuits  based on Freedom of Information.   The IPCC released their report of global warming and claimed a consensus among scientists.  Al Gore starred in An Inconvenient Truth in 2007, and won an Academy Award as well as a Nobel Peace Prize.  Yet the movie was ruled by a British court to have 9 factual errors.  This was only followed up by his new book Our Choice, which has a cover that was photoshopped to include mistakes and scientific inaccuracies. 

Where is the outrage and repercussions for him?

This ongoing scandal on only just gotten a little more press, but has been fought by skeptical scientists for years.  The British Great Global Warming Swindle was the pinnacle of documentaries calling out the flaws and misrepresentations.  Some of these scientists sent an open letter to Congress earlier this year pleading that they were being deceived. These scientists have faced incredible scrutiny , as discussed in this video with John Stossel back in 2007. 

Ah, but the fight never ended.  This past year, The Skeptics Handbook was released by Joanne Nova as a way to simplify the debate with four main points.

1. The Greenhouse signature is missing.
2. The strongest evidence was the ice cores, but newer, more detailed data turned the theory inside out.
3. Temperature is not rising.
4. Carbon Dioxide is already doing almost all of the warming it can do.

See more in the slide show below.

According to Marc Marano from Climatedepot.com: One Down!  Leaving the impression that perhaps truth will prevail and more may follow.  In a follow up, Marano said this:

This is a victory for science. This is a positive development in the battle against the UN’s politicized science. Jones was at the epicenter of the UN's efforts to keep the grand narrative of man-made climate fears alive regardless of the data. Jones epitomized the best science that politics, massive funding and ideology could manufacture.

Marc's former boss, Senator Inhoff will be leading the charge of Climategate in Copenhagen next week.  Will the world leaders finally listen, or are too many promises and too much money wrapped up already.  The prior attempt on global pollution control, the Kyoto Protocol went into law 5 years ago and was a failure.  I personally support helping the environment by cleaning the air and developing renewable energy technology.  But I don't endorse forcing the cause by scaring the public with bad science and false projections of our future.  This scandal has hit politics, economics, and the legitimacy of science.  Who and what will be trusted after this runs it course?

Climategate Humor:

A group called Minnesotans for Global Warming made a music video for the holidays to poke fun at the scandal.  The music is set to the Tommy James tune "Dragging The Line", and highlights Dr. Michael Mann.  He is a Penn State Professor...