US DoE puts “litigation hold” notice on all CRU / Jones data – yet Jones is not obligated to provide data to DoE – go figure

Over at the pioneering Anthony Watts blog, wattsupwiththat.com they have broken this great story about an email notice sent to employees at the – DOE-SR (Department of Energy Savannah River) a site to do with nuclear matters – the notice asks people in much legal terminology to hold on to, not destroy – any material or data to do with CRU at U of East Anglia or global warming etc

As I write there have been 409 comments to the Watts thread and it puzzles me that there is no mention of the department of the DoE where Prof Phil Jones has enjoyed contract support for over 25 years.

That Dept is CDIAC (Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center)– and in 1986 they published the documentation books that should be read and understood by anybody reading the Jones et al 1986 journal papers that effectively birthed IPCC global warming.

Now I have no idea if a similar litigation hold notice is effective at CDIAC – but it would be mighty odd if it were not – seeing that Jones work has all been published by CDIAC who to this day publish on their web pages various Jones et al / CRU data and papers.

While we are mentioning “odd”…

In Oct 2005 I wrote to DoE CDIAC asking for the Jones et al/CRU station data and was told:

“.. Phil was not obligated under the conditions of past or present DOE proposal awards to provide these items to CDIAC. I regret we cannot furnish the materials you seek.”

4 thoughts on “US DoE puts “litigation hold” notice on all CRU / Jones data – yet Jones is not obligated to provide data to DoE – go figure”

  1. “.. Phil was not obligated under the conditions of past or present DOE proposal awards to provide these items to CDIAC. I regret we cannot furnish the materials you seek.”

    That’s what he meant by hiding behind the data registrar. And now he’s in deep trouble.

  2. The famous Jones quote
    Continuation from the now-closed blog Russians now saying what I have said for years,
    http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=373#comment-23651

    Hi Warwick
    Thanks for the feedback. Just wondering if you’d had any joy tracking the email itself down. Don’t mean to unrelax your Xmas…honest.
    Cheers.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    Added 28 Dec. Here is the full email text. To put into perspective. During 2004 I had asked CRU / Prof Jones for updated station data. He had said that he could not supply but to try WMO. I had emailed WMO a few times at various addresses to no avail, so I let Prof Jones know this. By the sound of it he might have teed it up with Hans Teunisson at WMO to reply to me. I have not yet found a reply from WMO and can not recall one.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 12:12:22 +0000
    From: Phil Jones To: “wshughes@xxxxxx.au
    Subject: Re: WMO non respondo

    Warwick,
    Hans Teunisson will reply. He’ll tell you which other people should
    reply.
    Hans is “Hans Teunissen” .

    I should warn you that some data we have we are not supposed top pass on
    to others. We can pass on the gridded data – which we do. Even if WMO
    agrees, I will still not pass on the data. We have 25 or so years invested
    in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim
    is to try and find something wrong with it. There is IPR to consider.

    You can get similar data from GHCN at NCDC. Australia isn’t restricted
    there.
    Several European countries are. Basically because, for example, France
    doesn’t
    want the French picking up data on France from Asheville. Meteo France
    wants to supply data to the French on France. Same story in most of the
    others.

    Cheers
    Phil

    Prof. Phil Jones
    Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
    School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
    University of East Anglia
    Norwich Email p.jones@uea.ac.uk
    NR4 7TJ
    UK

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