A PROMINENT scientist and author has admitted duping conservative US think tank The Heartland Institute into releasing sensitive documents about its budget and its payments to climate-change sceptics.

Peter Gleick, a widely published US scientist and water researcher, said he emailed a staff member at the institute pretending to be someone else and was sent a set of eight documents that included the names of hundreds of companies that had donated to the institute, details of the group's strategies and a list of payments to bloggers and scientists, including an Australian, James Cook University adjunct professor Bob Carter.

"Dr Gleick published a statement on the internet yesterday apologising for obtaining the documents by deceptive means".

Dr Gleick published a statement on the internet yesterday apologising for obtaining the documents by deceptive means. He claimed to have been sent an anonymous memo apparently outlining the institute's strategy. Heartland has subsequently claimed the memo was fake.

After receiving the memo, Dr Gleick says he tried to verify it. "In an effort to do so, and in a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics, I solicited and received additional materials directly from The Heartland Institute under someone else's name," he said in his statement.