 The world is cooling. Rejoice! Global cooling occurs after about 16 hours of daylight, when the sun sets. The temperature can drop anywhere on earth ranging from a couple degrees to 10C! Unfortunately, human caused climate change from carbon emissions is still real and still a hot button issue. Aside from psychology, emotions are rarely included in scientific theories based on data collections. Contrast this with the climate skeptic approach of conspiracy theory fraught with flimsy quotations from rogue scientists and flimsier data. Despite overwhelming evidence of global warming, recently leaked emails from a leading center of climate research have fueled the skeptic fire.
Hacked emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK were released onto Russian servers this past November, revealing the intimate details on how a few scientific minds work. The emails contained correspondence from the center to researchers around the world. Of the thousands of emails most were mundane and boring and only two have stoked climate conspiracy theory. Skeptics, spelled 'sceptics' in Britain, often site only one email which reads: "I've just completed Mike's Nature [the science journal] trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline." Clearly, the email has been taken out of context. What temperatures is the scientist measuring? Bodily temperatures? Temperatures of the ocean? Or daytime temperature changes, satirically and truthfully mentioned in the opening paragraph? Nature is an esteemed publication of all the sciences, but every science studies temperature.
The situation made the embarrassed climate scientist (climatologist) Professor Phil Jones to temporarily step down as the director of the CRU. The research unit played a leading role in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which published findings in the Fourth Assessment Report on climate change. The report used overwhelming data in stating: "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal," which was to once and for all put to rest any doubters. Climategate, as the email situation has been called, is currently being investigated by senior civil servant Sir Muir Russell in an independent review, announced by the UEA. Russell will determine whether there was misconduct performed on data and data sharing.
Many speculate that the hacking occurred because of the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Change Summit: Conference of the Parties #15 (COP15), in less than 7 days. As Australia and the USA have shown, climate skeptics hold power over their countries. The leaked emails provide enough doubt, however tiny, to strangle climate legislation and global progress. Some are tempted to raise suspicion of a conspiracy- a conspiracy to prove climate change to be a hoax. The last thing the world needs now is more finger pointing of climate science conspiracy here and climate skeptic conspiracy there. What the world needs is leadership in Copenhagen. The world needs to focus on a treaty for the future, instead of a emails in the past.
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