Who is minding the minder Climategate and Wikipedia One person in the nine member Realclimate org team U K scientist and Green Party activist William Connolley would take on particularly crucial duties Connolley took control of all things climate in the most used information source the world has ever known Wikipedia Starting in February 2003 Connolley set to work on the Wikipedia site He rewrote Wikipedia s articles on global warming on the greenhouse effect on the instrumental temperature record on the urban heat island on climate models on global cooling On Feb 14 he began to erase the Little Ice Age on Aug 11 the Medieval Warm Period In October he turned his attention to the hockey stick graph He rewrote articles on the politics of global warming and on the scientists who were skeptical of the band Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer two of the world s most distinguished climate scientists were among his early targets followed by others that the band especially hated such as Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics authorities on the Medieval Warm Period All told Connolley created or rewrote 5 428 unique Wikipedia articles His control over Wikipedia was greater still however through the role he obtained at Wikipedia as a website administrator which allowed him to act with virtual impunity When Connolley didn t like the subject of a certain article he removed it more than 500 articles of various descriptions disappeared at his hand When he disapproved of the arguments that others were making he often had them barred over 2 000 Wikipedia contributors who ran afoul of him found themselves blocked from making further contributions In these ways Connolley turned Wikipedia into the missionary wing of the global warming movement Let s see how long this Talk comment lasts