Claims that prominent climate scientists had distorted and concealed key data were dismissed yesterday by an investigation into a scandal that threatened to destroy the credibility of global warming science.
But the review of the so-called climategate e-mails, which were hacked from the University of East Anglia in the UK last November, castigated climate scientists for their culture of secrecy, which the investigators blamed for creating public mistrust of their findings.
Sir Muir Russell, the former British civil servant who headed the six-month investigation, said the scientists had “failed to display the proper degree of openness” and been “unhelpful and defensive” in response to requests for data. “This was a lesson into what not to let happen,” he said.