Matt Ridley on Climategate - to the (linked) point

The Burden of Proof (reproduced in full)

I have just one comment on the Climategate reports and that is this: people who ask the world to spend $45 trillion on a project are surely under an obligation to show their raw data and their workings. If instead, they:

publish only 'adjusted data' rather than raw data,

refuse reasonable requests for computer code,

break freedom of information laws,

use 'tricks' to 'hide' inconvenient data,

base their argument on one tree,

use inappropriate statistical techniques, 

break their own rules on sources,

and urge each other to delete rather than release correspondence,

then I don't think they should go to jail or be called frauds.

But I do think their request should be politely turned down.