A leading climate change scientist said hackers breaking into a university's computer server and then posting documents online show the nasty politics of global warming.| Perpetrated mostly by the advocates of said warming, or hasn't the good professor noticed the savaging of the climate skeptics in the media? Not to mention how they've been handled in the scientific literature. Or is it okay to ruin someone's professional career if they're a climate skeptic? |
| Or just to reveal the truth ... |
| Suppose for a moment that there was a right wing think tank involved in the science of denying climate change. Now suppose that scientists and administrators within that think tank were fudging the data and 'adjusting' their models so as to back their claims. And suppose that they had been working to sabotage the careers of those who disagreed with them. And suppose they were working with celebrities, politicians and other low-lifes to perpetrate a fraud on the public. Got that? Now suppose a brave hacker had released the e-mails and documents that demonstrated all this. The question (and remember, death is not an option): how do you think the MSM would handle that revelation? The answer says a lot about the debate today. |
About 1,000 e-mails and 3,000 documents have been posted on Web sites and seized on by climate change skeptics, who claim correspondence shows collusion between scientists to overstate the case for global warming, and evidence that some have manipulated evidence.
"The messengers in this case are the scientists who are putting forward a basis for this, the basis for the climate change based on, and founded upon the facts, the measurements and the observations and our best interpretation of those," Trenberth said.
Trenberth said he's identified 102 e-mails stolen from a British university's computer server. Hackers distributed only documents that could help attempts by skeptics to undermine the scientific consensus on man-made climate change.
Many of the exchanges were between him and Phil Jones, the British research center's director. The two men worked on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments, which articulated the scientific community's consensus on global warming in 2001 and 2007.
"What you see in those e-mails are exchanges among a whole bunch of scientists on issues," Trenberth said. "What you will find is that there is a tremendous amount of integrity, vigorous discussion about issues and exactly how to handle issues... So it's far from a whole bunch of scientists agreeing and colluding to do things. They're actually arguing, vigorously, about the science."
Trenberth, a well-respected atmospheric scientist, said it did not appear that all the documents stolen from the university had been distributed on the Internet by the hackers.
At least 65 world leaders will attend the Copenhagen climate summit in December as representatives of 191 nations seek agreement on a new global treaty on limiting emissions of greenhouse gases.