Josh on Gleick (click to enlarge)
Naturally, the blogs are full of the Gleick admission that it was he who solicited and then distributed confidential Heartland documents. Here is some recommended reading:
When ‘Heartlandgate’ first broke, I saw no parallels with Climategate. Now, with the involvement of Gleick, there most certainly are parallels. There is the common theme of climate scientists compromising personal and professional ethics, integrity, and responsibility, all in the interests of a ’cause’.
On the one hand, Climategate involved a large number of people that were involved in the IPCC. Apart from the FOI avoidance that was arguably criminal, everyone seems to have been ‘cleared’ by the various investigations. On the other hand, Gleick is only one person, but his actions are far more serious, particularly if they involve fabrication of a document.
WUWT on the National Centre for Science Education:
As part of NCSE’s expansion to defend the teaching of climate science, Gleick had agreed to join NCSE’s board of directors. On the same day as he posted his statement, however, he apologized to NCSE for his behavior with regard to the Heartland Institute documents and offered to withdraw from the board, on which he was scheduled to begin serving as of February 25, 2012. His offer was accepted.
“Gleick obtained and disseminated these documents without the knowledge of anyone here,” NCSE’s executive director Eugenie C. Scott commented, “and we do not condone his doing so.” But, she added, “they show that NCSE was right to broaden its scope to include the teaching of climate science. There really are coordinated attempts to undermine the teaching of climate science, and NCSE is needed to help to thwart them.”
WUWT on Gleick’s removal from AGU Task Force on Scientific Ethics:
Commenter FP writes:
Hmm, they’ve removed Peter Gleick’s name from this page.
It was there four days ago, according to google’s cache. Has he resigned/been fired already?
So now we know the identity of the Fakegate fake. His name is Peter Gleick, he has a PhD from Berkeley, he’s the winner of a MacArthur genius award, he’s a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and he runs a Californian research organisation called the Pacific Institute which advises, inter alia, on “integrity” in science. (H/T Roddy Campbell, Jabba The Cat)
Funny, that, eh? Before we examine a little more closely what he’s done, let’s just read a bit more about his Institute’s passionate commitment to integrity, shall we?
The Pacific Institute’s Integrity of Science Initiative responds to and counters the assault on science and scientific integrity in the public policy arena, especially on issues related to water, climate change, and security.
Ah. That kind of integrity. Protecting good, honest climate scientists against all the lies and misinformation and black propaganda ranged against them by the evil, Koch-Bros-funded Climate Denial industry: would that be the sort of thing you meant, Peter?
All in all a huge embarrassment for “The Cause”.
Australian Climate Madness 
Forged Heartland “Documents”.
As a “hero”, I liken Gleick to that of Samuel L Jackson’s character in Unbreakable.
Fenbeagle sums Gleick up nicely. http://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/gleickety-gleick/
Gleick must have known he was in hot water shortly after releasing the Heartland documents. He resigned as chair of the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Task Force on Scientific Ethics (of all things) on 16 February 2012 – 2 days after the documents were released.
The AGU said in a statement, after Gleick confessed, “AGU is disappointed that Dr. Gleick acted in a way that is inconsistent with our organization’s values. AGU expects its members to adhere to the highest standards of scientific integrity in their research and in their interactions with colleagues and the public.”
Gleick cited “personal, private reasons” and expressed concern that he would not be able to fulfill his responsibilities as chair, when he offered his resignation, which was accepted by AGU.