WSJ Reports Independent Probe of ClimateGate Aiming to 'Reappraise' Conclusions of Climate Research Unit

February 12th, 2010 11:03 AM

East Anglia University, which came under fire a few months ago for the now infamous ClimateGate email scandal, announced yesterday that it is launching an independent probe into the work of its Climate Research Unit (CRU).

Wall Street Journal's Guy Chazan reports the story today  -- found on page A15 of the print edition -- noting that the independent review led by Sir Muir Russell will "reappraise the CRU's scientific conclusions."

But Chazan noted that some critics argue that a deeper problem underpinning ClimateGate is not addressed by the probe:

"To do an assessment of the scientific research...is sort of beside the point," said Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "The main issue is to provide open access to the data and the metadata ... and let the broader community assess the data sets."

British wire service Reuters has a full story on the development here, and FoxNews.com also has an article on the story, written by British sister network Sky News.

It remains to be seen how American print and broadcast outlets will cover the story.