Megan McArdle explains why it's highly unlikely that "global warming scientists have been engaging in some kind of massive conspiracy to conceal the truth." She can't imagine why scientists who spent ten years getting a PhD would ever to decide to make things up, and that not one, but all of them, would participate in this deception.

Let me add a quick note. While it's
true that peer reviewers don't usually get their hands on raw data, 
the system has other checks in place. One scientist and his colleagues
aren't the only ones doing research in a particular area. There are competing
teams at universities around the world. The system is set up to reward
people who come up with new findings. That's how people get tenure. No
one gets tenure reproducing existing studies. They either have to
create new studies that affirm the first study's conclusions or, better yet,
mark new territory.

Alex Tabarrok writes a fascinating post about the future of online education. He envisions universities vying for hot-shot teachers, rather than researchers. (Jacob Levy would say "dream on.") These hot-shot teachers produce online lectures which are mass produced and distributed, and an army of TAs does all the grading. It was a thought provoking post with quality comments.