Credibility Meltdown for Leading Climate Scientists

The recent climate scandal involving the Climate Research Unit hack will likely prove to be a devastating blow to anthropogenic global warming (AGW) advocates. Andrew Bolt of the Herald Sun suggests:

"The 1079 emails and 72 documents seem indeed evidence of a scandal involving most of the most prominent scientists pushing the man-made warming theory - a scandal that is one of the greatest in modern science. I’ve been adding some of the most astonishing in updates below - emails suggesting conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organized resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more. If it is as it now seems, never again will 'peer review' be used to shout down skeptics."

One of the documents released is a five-page document titled The Rules of the Game. A primer for propagating the AGW message to average people, the document is an abridgment of a longer document contained at the Web site of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. One of its sections is entitled Blowing Away Myths. The document proposes that AGW supporters should

"forget the climate change detractors - those who deny climate change science are irritating, but unimportant. The argument is not about if we should deal with climate change, but how we should deal with climate change."

I find it risible that they think ignoring their opponents is equivalent to "blowing away myths." This appears to be typical behavior from AGW proponents; it screams intellectual dishonesty.