Global warming conspiracy theorists unite

I'm sure readers are aware how often some people (often lefties, but really people of all stripes) make smart-arse remarks about corporations supposedly influencing the scientific and/or democratic process with money.

Well here's the corporation responsible for a fair chunk of the US research into global warming: The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. It's a non-profit NGO with a yearly income of ~$US200 million.

How do I know they're 'global warmists'? They sent a letter to US Representative Joe Barton in support of some rather important climate modellers requested to appear before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Here's the important part of their letter [PDF]:

In this matter, it appears that the Committee has (1) opened an investigation rather than employing less intimidating Congressional tools; (2) asked for documents that do not seem to bear directly on the Committee’s stated interest in the debate over the extent of climate change; and (3) has apparently sought information from only one side in the ongoing debate.

The people 'under investigation' are three key authors of a series of peer-reviewed journal articles with rather important ramifications for the validity of global warming theory. Up until the time of the hearings, these authors refused to release the 'source code' for the computer model calculating their statistics. They were also asked to comment on several other important issues, which I'll cover in a later post.

Here is the blog of the man who believes he has disproven their work: Steve McIntyre.

More on this later, after I've had time to read both blogs and the papers involved.