The climate science community was again rocked by scandal with the revelation that the Pacific Institute’s Peter Gleick impersonated a board member of the Heartland Institute to obtain confidential internal documents that he then released (accompanied by an almost-certainly-fake “Climate Strategy” memo) to progressive and environmentalist bloggers. The memo is significant because it is the only document released that cast Heartland in a bad light. The question now is whether its provenance can be proven. I have two posts providing greater detail and rounding up links here and here. Steve Hayward also discusses the recent events and their implications for the climate debate here, and Heartland has set up their own website on the scandal here. As climate scientist Judith Curry notes, in this case, as in Climategate, “There is the common theme of climate scientists compromising personal and professional ethics, integrity, and responsibility, all in the interests of a ’cause.’”