'Climategate' Scientists Vindicated

The so-called Climategate scientists have been cleared, but is the damage done? An independent inquiry into the affair, which was enthusiastically circulated among climate-change skeptics, found that the scientists involved acted honestly and that their research is reliable. The uproar broke in November when emails from scientists at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit were stolen and published online; the emails showed the scientists mocking climate-change skeptics and trying to keep them out of peer-reviewed journals. However the panel that led the study—the third inquiry into the matter—did reserve some harsh words for the scientists, rebuking them for “failing to display the proper degree of openness.”