CLIMATEGATE: OUSTED PROFESSOR CONSIDERED SUICIDE

Dr. Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) is telling the Times Online that he contemplated suicide after receiving death threats and being otherwise overwhelmed by the scandal. I don't care how big the fraud, no one deserves to get death threats, including Phil Jones.

Professor Phil Jones said in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Times that he had thought about killing himself “several times”. He acknowledged similarities to Dr David Kelly, the scientist who committed suicide after being exposed as the source for a BBC report that alleged the government had “sexed up” evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

In emails that were hacked into and seized upon by global-warming sceptics before the Copenhagen climate summit in December, Jones appeared to call upon his colleagues to destroy scientific data rather than release it to people intent on discrediting their work monitoring climate change.

Jones, 57, said he was unprepared for the scandal: “I am just a scientist. I have no training in PR or dealing with crises.”

I'm no psychiatrist but I would think that coming clean and admitting it was all a big fraudulent scam would be liberating. But alas, Jones is still sticking by the "science".

Jones has temporarily stood down as director of the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia. He fiercely defends the unit’s science — “I stand by it 100%” — but now accepts that he did not treat Freedom of Information (FoI) requests for the data as seriously as he should have done. Jones believes that the unit was maliciously targeted with multiple FoI requests by climate change sceptics determined to disrupt its work.

Well, at least it was a partial mea culpa but Jones would probably feel much better if he made it a full one.

Phil, I'm glad you reconsidered and didn't end your life but PLEASE come clean and admit the truth.

h/t to Drudge