Roaring through the denialosphere are claims that “Climategate” somehow represents “the final nail in the coffin of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming'”.
Sigh.
What do we see in these emails? There seem to be some strong anger at those who work hard to distort information in their work and distort science when speaking to non-scientific communities. There is (passionate) frustration with self-proclaimed ‘skeptics’ collaborating to create ‘peer reviewed’ journal space where non-scientifically sound work can be published. There is discussion of how to do analysis and how to account for confusing anomalies. There is plenty of material to cherry pick from and scream about in efforts to foster confusion about and disdain for actual science.
On the other hand, what is not being waved about from the hilltops by anti-science syndrome suffering skeptics?
More interesting is what is not contained in the emails. There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to ‘get rid of the MWP’, no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no ‘marching orders’ from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords.
Obviously, though, this means that hackers must have deleted these portions of the emails because of … “The truly paranoid will put this down to the hackers also being in on the plot though.”
Brad Johnson at Wonkroom concludes ClimateGate : Hacked Emails Reveal Global Warming Deniers Are Crazed Conspiracy Theorists .
Evidently due to this e-mail conspiracy, Arctic sea ice is at historically low levels, Australia is on fire, the northern United Kingdom is underwater, and the world’s glaciers are disappearing.
In any event, Joe Romm accurately summarizes ClimateGate:
Whatever smoke the anti-scientific disinformers are able to blow into people’s faces over this bunch of emails dating back over a decade, it doesn’t change the basic facts about human-caused warming:
Truly, it would be great news for all of us if the anti-science syndrome promoting skeptics were correct. Sadly, it isn’t the scientists, but the planet which is skating on thinner ice.
update:
From Kevin Grandia at DeSmogBlog On ClimateGate:
I’ll admit, as someone who spends most days looking for leaked documents, the package of stolen emails and documents from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University is pretty juicy. Anything that provides insight into the inner-workings of your opponents is pretty much manna from heaven in this line of work.
I have been going through all the files today and I hate to disappoint but it just ain’t the scandal climate conspiracy theorists want it to be.
These emails are blissfully being spun by the climate contrarians as proof of some type of worldwide conspiracy by scientists to fake the climate change crisis. Michelle Malkin, who relishes Ann Coulter-esque statements, goes so far as to call it “the global warming scandal of the century.”
Right.
Nate Silver at 538 with I Read Through 160,000,000 Bytes of Hacked Files And All I Got Was This Lousy E-Mail
There you have it! The smoking gun! Irrefutable proof of the Anthropogenic Warming Global Super-Duper Major-Mega International Socialist Conspiracy!
If you see Al Gore parking his Ford Fusion hybrid near any major bridges, make sure to call the police! …
But let’s be clear: Jones is talking to his colleagues about making a prettier picture out of his data, and not about manipulating the data itself. Again, I’m not trying to excuse what he did — we make a lot of charts here and 538 and make every effort to ensure that they fairly and accurately reflect the underlying data (in addition to being aesthetically appealing.) I wish everybody would abide by that standard.
Still: I don’t know how you get from some scientist having sexed up a graph in East Anglia ten years ago to The Final Nail In The Coffin of Anthropogenic Global Warming. Anyone who comes to that connection has more screws loose than the Space Shuttle Challenger. And yet that’s literally what some of these bloggers are saying!
Incidentally, 2009 is shaping up to be the 5th warmist year on record, according to the conspiracists at NASA
13 responses so far ↓
1 This is not good, the CRU computer hack « Greenfyre’s // Nov 20, 2009 at 4:20 pm
[…] GetEnergySmartNow!!! […]
2 uberVU - social comments // Nov 20, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by ClimaTweets: [Get Energy Smart] ClimateGate reveals nefarious conspiracy? NOT!: Roaring through the denialosphere are claims tha… http://bit.ly/8rhcps…
3 “Mike’s Nature trick … to hide the decline.” « Greenfyre’s // Nov 21, 2009 at 11:35 am
[…] ClimateGate reveals nefarious conspiracy? NOT! […]
4 ClimateGate reveals nefarious conspiracy! // Nov 21, 2009 at 9:48 pm
[…] apologize. This post corrects something written yesterday. ClimateGATE reveals nefarious conspiracy? NOT! asserted that the hacked emails from a leading global warming (climate change) science center did […]
5 greenfyre commented on Scientist: Leak of climate e-mails appalling « Friends MAX // Nov 22, 2009 at 5:52 pm
[…] … ClimateGate reveals nefarious conspiracy? NOT! http://getenergysmartnow.com/2009/11/20/climategat … Even if the worst case scenario is true, the difference it makes on the science is trivial. […]
6 greenfyre commented on Hacked Emails: Bitter Feud In Scientists Over Global Warming « Friends MAX // Nov 23, 2009 at 11:29 am
[…] Climate change Deniers hoax themselves … again. http://greenfyre.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/climate- … Scholars and Rogues » Climategate? Not likely. http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2009/11/20/climat … "The hacked climate science email scandal that wasn’t" http://scienceblogs.com/islandofdoubt/2009/11/the_ … ClimateGate reveals nefarious conspiracy? NOT! http://getenergysmartnow.com/2009/11/20/climategat … […]
7 dave // Nov 24, 2009 at 7:37 am
oh really? Nothing much here, then why has George Monbiot apologized for misleading his readers?
The more telling aspect of this leak is the clear evidence that the programmers who wrote the code for the models made up assumptions to suit an agenda. Think
8 greenfyre commented on Climategate « Friends MAX // Nov 25, 2009 at 11:10 pm
[…] … ClimateGate reveals nefarious conspiracy? NOT! http://getenergysmartnow.com/2009/11/20/climategat … "Smoking guns in the CRU stolen e-mails: A real tale of real ethics in science" […]
9 populist // Dec 3, 2009 at 11:20 am
http://www.breadwithcircus.com/#120209
[This is a] podcast, its about how the “truth” movement is being used by the deniers to muddy the waters.
10 This decade 'warmest on record' - Page 5 - The Environment Site Forums // Jan 3, 2010 at 3:41 am
[…] ClimateGate reveals nefarious conspiracy? NOT! […]
11 The world consensus about anthropogenic climate change - Page 94 - Political Forum // Jan 3, 2010 at 8:59 pm
[…] Conspiracy Theorists Climategate? Not likely. The hacked climate science email scandal that wasn?t ClimateGate reveals nefarious conspiracy? NOT! Viaduct? Vy not? Now that more and more people outside of the Denier camp have had a chance to […]
12 Science, Politics, and Money « Generalissimo // Jan 17, 2010 at 4:21 pm
[…] infuriated me to no end, the supposed controversy and its easily dispelled allegations whipping bloviating jerk-face Rush Limbaugh and others into a frenzy, utterly misconstruing […]
13 Gen // Feb 13, 2010 at 7:31 am
We have to guard our climate. Plant one tree for one people. Get together from now on.