Steal More; Reveal Less

The Climagegate hackers appear to be at it again, spraying the internet with dozens of out-of-context quotes from a new batch of stolen emails – in a transparent attempt to disrupt the climate talks starting next week in Durban, South Africa.

The emails, from a source that denierblogger Tallbloke identifies as “Our old friend ‘FOIA‘,” appeared with the same serendipitous timing – and in the same devious way – as last year’s more-devastating tranche: accordig to the Guardian, they were “leaked” on a Russian server and then sprinkled into the denieresphere through the usual suspects: Wattsupwiththat, ClimateAudit, AirVent and the already mentioned Tallbloke. We can undoubtedly expect a fresh round of breathless “mainstream media” coverage from the Murdoch empire.

These emails are even more ridiculous than the batch released in 2009. First, the hackers didn’t have the decency to release the emails in context – rather they just pulled the quotes they thought would be effective in casting doubt. Second, the thieves, who have had two whole years to sift through what appears to be the same source material have mined only 5,000 of more than 220,000 emails, implying that there may be more “dirt” buried in the remainder. This strains credulity: if there was anything in the remaining emails that was even vaguely incriminating, you can bet they would have found and released it. Third, the “best stuff” that they actually released is worse than trivial:

Take this for example: “<0813> Fox/Environment Agency: If we lose the chance to make climate change a reality to people in the regions we will have missed a major trick in REGIS.”

This is apparently a reference to the Regional Climate Change Impact and Response Studies being conducted out of East Anglia University in the U.K. And the apparent intent of the quote is to say that scientists believe that their work will be wasted if they don’t find a way to get people’s attention with the considerable evidence that they have discovered that climate change is, in fact, a devastating threat.

It’s clear enough that governments like Canada’s own are committed to ignoring the climate threat – at least as long as their oily buddies can continue to cash in by making matters worse. It’s also clear that Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre are desperate to portray themselves as clever contrarians, and they will make whatever allies are necessary to keep up the facade.

But really, is this all there is? They have 220,000 stolen emails and they can’t find a single out-of-context quote that would overtake the so-successfully misused “hide the decline” line from 2009?

Mike Mann, quoted in the Guardian story above, is right. This is pathetic.