Breaking News in the Climate Science World

Michael Mann is reporting this on his facebook page:

Breaking: A victory for science! ATI loses ATI/UVa FOIA case. Judge issues final order. Affirms the university’s right to withhold scholarly communications and finds that the documents & personal emails of mine demanded by ATI were indeed protected as the university had contended.

I am gratified for the hard work and vigorous defense provided by the university to protect scholarly communications and raw materials of scholarship. Fortunately Virginia has a strong exemption in the public records act that protects research and scholarly endeavors. The judge ruled that the exemption under Virginia’s public records protecting information in furtherance of research on scientific and scholarly issues applies to faculty communications in furtherance of their work.

This finding is a potentially important precedent, as ATI and other industry-backed front groups continue to press their attacks on climate scientists through the abuse of public records and FOIA laws and the issuing of frivolous and vexatious demands for internal scholarly deliberations and personal correspondences.

More background on the case is available at climscifoi.blogspot:

http://climscifoi.blogspot.com/2012/08/new-filings-in-atiuva-foia-case.html

I’m sure there will be blog posts and articles and air planes with banners and stuff eventually, but I thought you’d want to know this now.

Comments

#1 jack jason
September 18, 2012

Yeh its really breaking news you share here with us. This news is very important for us. Keep it up.

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#2 MadScientist
September 18, 2012

Dem Judges must be part o’ the Obama Conspiracy …

Never think “this has got to be the dumbest thing I’d ever seen/heard” – you’ll only be even more disappointed when you see worse. The AGW denialists are like Creationists when it comes to turning up the stupid.
#3 Steven Earl Salmony
Chapel Hill, NC
September 18, 2012

“Think globally, act locally” could be a shibboleth of humanity in these early years of Century XXI. Although not inherently unproblematic, local efforts to communicate about what is forbidden may provide a key for ‘unlocking’ the avoidant behavior regarding such vital issues as human-driven climate destabilization, economic expansion and global population growth. A ground up approach appears to be needed. There is woefully inadequate momentum building within communities to share an understanding of how unbridled population increase, endless economic growth and climate change are becoming manifest on the local level. Human beings can choose to acknowledge, address and overcome problems we have created. Of that one thing can there any doubt? As citizens participate in local efforts to communicate openly, objectively and honestly, we also begin working together to create the supportive environment that is a necessary condition for confronting certain admittedly daunting ecological challenges and engaging in large-scale lifestyle changes.