Fudge factors

Over on ESR's blog it looks as if there's a storm brewing with regard to the leaked source code from the Climate Research Unit. If the source code in question turns out to be genuine, and the fudge factors can't be properly justified (usually they can't, by definition, since a fudge factor is just some made up number inserted arbitrarily), then this could be pretty damaging, and resignations would surely have to follow.

I'm no expert on climate science, and havn't really taken sufficient interest in it to have a very informed opinion either way. One thing which is very clear however is that for a topic as important as global warming, which has significant public policy implications worldwide, all of the data, and the software used to process it, should be open source so that it can be checked and re-checked from first principles by anyone who has doubts or wants to run their own forecasts. It shouldn't require some crook to steal the software then post it online, because the code should already be in the public domain to begin with.