Monday, December 7, 2009

Climategate

On November 20, 2009 hundreds of private e-mails and documents of American and British climate researchers were hacked and publically exposed. What’s the big deal? The messages reveal discussions on whether or not scientific data that did not support their position should be released. They also discussed how to argue their skeptics. The documents and messages show a concerted effort to manipulate scientific information on climate change. This scandal, called ClimateGate, has the power to cause question to the quality of research charging humanity as the culprit of global warming (NYTimes).

December 7-18th of this year (right now!) government officials are in Copenhagen for COP15. This is a United Nations climate change conference whose intentions are to vote to raise an international commitment to the reduction of emissions (COP15). Leaders from all over the world are coming together to make much needed decisions that will determine the health of our planet. Great, right? As we have studied both in class and out, the evidence for global climate change is overwhelming.

The problem is that a decision to reduce carbon emissions will put pressure on the United States to reduce our hefty share and that is bad for business. As we saw in today’s class, the United States on a whole has no real sense of urgency when it comes to making changes to improve global warming. Some continue to be skeptical that climate change is real. Research released in October revealed that only 57% of Americans believed that there was solid evidence for global warming and only 35% believed it was a serious problem. ClimateGate only adds fuel to the fire. It causes greater skepticism among Americans and gives the un-eco-friendly leverage against a much needed commitment to the planet for the sake of their own pockets. The actions of these climatologists produced exactly what they did not want. In their desire for change, they disengaged morally and no one knows what will happen. This mistake does not negate decades of evidence that point to human involvement in climate change (Time).

I saw United States policy makers on television glorying in the blunder of those climatologists. They have the benefit of the ClimateGate scandal and have made it their new banner under which they claim to be fighting for the people and the economy. Climate science and politics are unfortunately intertwined, but the truth can only be avoided for so long. Hopefully, the interests of the planet and the global community will be considered first in the coming decision making.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/21climate.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1258981217-J7yhMhEJWdwLtqx9U3uQdQ

http://en.cop15.dk/

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1929071_1929070_1945175,00.html

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