If this story in the Wall Street Journal is correct the answer is yes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125883405294859215.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Backgound:

As the WSJ reports, hackers accessed thousands of documents and emails from the servers of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. These have now been placed on the internet.

Here are some quotes from WSJ

"The picture that emerges of prominent climate-change scientists…is one of professional backbiting and questionable scientific practices. ..."

"A partial review of the emails shows that in many cases, climate scientists revealed that their own research wasn't always conclusive. In others, they discussed ways to paper over differences among themselves in order to present a "unified" view on climate change. On at least one occasion, climate scientists were asked to "beef up" conclusions about climate change and extreme weather events because environmental officials in one country were planning a "big public splash."

So they fudged their data.

This has ramifications that extend beyond climate research. In what other fields are scientists fudging data? I know of at least one other field in which important research has been suppressed because of the political implications.

Have we truly reached the point where the so-called scientific consensus is what scientists who value their positions, pay, pensions and research grants are prepared to say in public?

Do scientists expect the public to continue taking them seriously?

Do they expect to continue getting public funding?

Fudging data by adding to it, subtracting from it or manipulating your data sources is THE cardinal sin of science. Any scientist who engages in that sort of behaviour needs to be sacked immediately. That's the way it used to be and that's the way it should be again.

You can find the hacked archive here:

http://www.filedropper.com/foi2009

It is interesting that at the time of writing neither the ABC nor the BBC appear to have reported on the story

Correction.

It turns out the BBC has reported on the hacking of the Climate Research Unit server – after a fashion.

See:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8370282.stm

The report covers the bare fact of the hacking. It does not describe what the hack revealed.

stevenlmeyer: << It is interesting that at the time of writing neither the ABC nor the BBC appear to have reported on the story >>

I would think that they are investigating the story in some depth, given the potential ramifications. Seems like a much more objective - not to mention effective - way of reporting the unfolding apparent scandal, than sending premature and ignorant trolls out into the blogosphere in order to generate yet another hatefest.

Since virtually nobody here has access yet to the information on which this story is based, this appears to be just another troll from Steven, of the kind to which we're accustomed.

I'm going to hang back for a while until more information is available - but I'm sure that won't stop the usual crew from taking the bait and running with it.

CJ writes

'I would think that they are investigating the story in some depth, '

What a joke. Maybe they should check out the ridiculous predictions of some of these High Priest before they annoint them as experts. The ABC/SBS are so indoctrinated with dogma and have been caught up in this scam refusing to report any sort of balance. Mr Rudd and Ms Wong should apologise while it has become fashionable to them. They have been caught out as very naive or extremely deceitful.

Yes, I'll reserve judgement at this stage too, CJ. This story has a way to run yet, I'd say.

Here's a more balanced take on it for starters.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/20/climate-sceptics-hackers-leaked-emails

I'd be surprised if these emails are a random sample. More likely someone's been working on this for a long time and been paid very handsomely for it too. By whom is the question.

Oh I dunno, Bronwyn. runner seems to have inside info of the kind that Steven obviously wants to attract.

Of course, runner's source is impeccable - Jesus told him ;)