Climategate: The Debate Warms Up over Climate Change Research Hacking
Posted by Lisa Carey
Global warming was under fire again last week as computer hackers released classified information from a leading climate research center in England. Those who say global warming isn’t true are using this information to prove their point. Have you seen the research that went viral? What do you think about “Climategate?”
We have Bill Gates, Watergate, and now Climategate. What is Climategate?
Climategate is the name being used to describe a recent hacking into, and exposure of, research from the server Real Climate used by Climate Research Unit (CRU). The CRU is from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.
What was leaked in Climategate?
Over 1,000 e-mails and 2,000 documents relating to climate change research from 1996 to 2009 were hacked into and uploaded online.
Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security, says that in this type of case, “80 percent of the time it’s an insider.” The incident is being investigated by the Norfolk police.
The RealClimate website was hacked on November 17, 2009. The IP address was associated with a computer in Turkey, and a link to the file was posted on the Climate Audit blog from a computer with a Russian IP address, with a comment that ” a miracle just happened.”
Other posts from the hackers included the notes that climate science is “too important to be kept under wraps,” and the stolen materials were described as “a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents.”
Gavin Schmidt of RealClimate discovered the hack and post within minutes, temporarily shut down the website, and deleted the stolen uploaded files.
The Climategate e-mails reportedly included:
-how to combat arguments about climate change
-unflattering comments about climate change skeptics
-drafts of scientific papers
-queries from journalists
-talks of destroying some files to prevent them from being used under the Freedom of Information Act
-talks on keeping scientists with contrary climate change views out of scientific journals
Phil Jones, Director of CRU, later confirmed that all of the leaked e-mails appeared to be genuine. Jones has since been asked to stand aside as director pending an investigation.
Jones answered that charges the e-mails involved “untoward” activity as “ludicrous.”
Kevin Trenberth, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says the climate change skeptics selectively quoted words and phrases out of context in an attempt to sabotage the December Copenhagen global climate summit.
Whether or not the hacked e-mails shed any scientific light on global warming, Climategate has heated up many debates.
Two members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have called upon Nobel Laureate Al Gore’s 2007 Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth” to be rescinded. Of course, the film’s director, Davis Guggenheim and producers Lawrence Bender and Laurie David actually won the Oscar, but the glory largely went to global warming activist Al Gore.
Some are calling the Climategate hackers heroes, while others stand staunch, labeling them criminals. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said that the recently released e-mails should be treated as a crime.
“You call it ‘Climategate’; I call it ‘E-mail-theft-gate,’” Boxer said during a committee meeting.
Whether or not arrests will be made in Climategate is yet to be seen, but there is no doubt global warming research will find itself in the “interrogation room”, even more often as the Climategate fuels the global warming debate.
See global warming under fire at Fox News . . .
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2 Responses to “Climategate: The Debate Warms Up over Climate Change Research Hacking”
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William Beers says:
Don’t defend this junk science (AGW). It was suspect long before ClimateGate. When the US Dollar crashes and becomes near worthless, solar will be badly needed just to survive in some places.
Climate change is a fraud, and Al Gore is a flim flam man. However, we do need to clean up the environment, such as industrial waste (flouride) in the water. Mercury in the water, and other toxins that have poisoned our fish, and wildlife and human beings.