Climategate: the corruption of Wikipedia

Connolley took control of all things climate in the most used information source the world has ever known -- Wikipedia. Starting in February 2003, just when opposition to the claims of the band members were beginning to gel, Connolley set to work on the Wikipedia site. He rewrote Wikipedia's articles on global warming, on the greenhouse effect, on the instrumental temperature record, on the urban heat island, on climate models, on global cooling. On Feb. 14, he began to erase the Little Ice Age; on Aug.11, the Medieval Warm Period. In October, he turned his attention to the hockey stick graph. He rewrote articles on the politics of global warming and on the scientists who were skeptical of the band. Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer, two of the world's most distinguished climate scientists, were among his early targets, followed by others that the band especially hated, such as Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, authorities on the Medieval Warm Period.

All told, Connolley created or rewrote 5,428 unique Wikipedia articles. His control over Wikipedia was greater still, however, through the role he obtained at Wikipedia as a website administrator, which allowed him to act with virtual impunity. When Connolley didn't like the subject of a certain article, he removed it -- more than 500 articles of various descriptions disappeared at his hand. When he disapproved of the arguments that others were making, he often had them barred -- over 2,000 Wikipedia contributors who ran afoul of him found themselves blocked from making further contributions. Acolytes whose writing conformed to Connolley's global warming views, in contrast, were rewarded with Wikipedia's blessings. In these ways, Connolley turned Wikipedia into the missionary wing of the global warming movement.

In September 2009, the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee revoked Mr. Connolley's administrator status after finding that he misused his administrative privileges while involved in a dispute unrelated to climate warming.

>> I’ve attached the piece in word format. Hyperlinks are still there,

>> but not clickable in word format. I’ve already given it a good

>> go-over w/ Gavin, Stefan, and William Connelley (our internal “peer

>> review” process at RC), so I think its in pretty good shape. Let me

>> know if any comments…

>>

From: Phil Jones

To: William M Connolley ,Caspar Ammann

Subject: Figure 7.1c from the 1990 IPCC Report

Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:38:40 +0000

Cc: Tom Crowley ,"Michael E. Mann" , "raymond s. bradley" , Stefan Rahmstorf , Eric Steig ,[email protected], [email protected],[email protected], David Archer , "Raymond P." ,[email protected], [email protected], "Mitchell, John FB (Chief Scientist)" , "Jenkins, Geoff" , "Warrilow, David (GA)" , Tom Wigley ,[email protected], "Folland, Chris"