UK Government decides "Climategate" scientists broke the law - but it's too late to jail them
In a rather interesting turn of events, the Information Commissioner's office over in England has decided that the East Anglia Climate Research Unit scientists did, in fact, break the law when they chose to purposely keep climate data from other researchers. That is not at all a surprise, as it's rather obvious from reading the emails that the scientists themselves knew at the time, that they were violating the UK version of the Freedom of Information Act.
This whole episode is very sad for science in general, and not just climate science. Science and scientists are losing standing and trust in the eyes of the lay public. I think that many scientists don't even seem to realize that we are not that popular with many in the general public to begin with. The general population is not scientifically trained and many prefer to let emotions and feelings guide them regardless of what rational thinking would say. There are many people who dismiss science as a reliable source of knowledge for religious reasons. Others reject science because the findings of science are in conflict with their racist, or homophobic, or anti-technological "gaia/mother nature worship" or other irrational views they may prefer to hold. They hold these views because of how they make them feel, and rationality, logic, and science be damned.
These are difficult aspects of human nature to overcome for people promoting science and rational thinking as the best way to approach solutions to humanity's many problems. People like the CRU group and their associates around the world who are promoting a political agenda in the guise of science, are doing themselves and all other scientists a great deal of damage.
Here is a good story from the other side of the Atlantic regarding these crimes by the CRU scientists, and the inability to prosecute them due to some statute of limitations for prosecution:
