Climatic Research Unit email controversy

The Climatic Research Unit e-mail hacking incident refers to a November 2009 incident involving the hacking and leaking of e-mails and documents on climate change research from the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia U.K.

Details of the incident have been reported to the police, who are investigating. Excerpts from the leaked correspondence have been promoted by global warming sceptics, who say the private correspondence shows that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change. The university has characterised the theft as "mischievous," and a leading climate change scientist allegedly named in the emails, Kevin Trenberth, has said that it "may be aimed at undermining talks at next month's Copenhagen global climate summit".

Leaking

In November 2009, unidentified persons accessed private files located on the Climatic Research Unit's servers, posting the e-mails they found online. The incident is being investigated by police and involved the leaking of more than 1,000 e-mails and 3,000 other documents, consisting of 160 MB of data in total, though its authenticity could not be confirmed. The material included discussions of scientific data and how to combat the arguments of climate change sceptics, unflattering comments about individual sceptics, queries from journalists and drafts of scientific papers.

The theft was discovered after hackers attempted to break into the server of the RealClimate website on 17 November and upload the stolen files. The attempt was thwarted and the University of East Anglia was notified, but on 19 November the files were uploaded to a Russian server before being copied to numerous locations across the Internet. They were accompanied by an anonymous statement defending the leaks, saying that climate science was "too important to be kept under wraps" and describing the release as "a random selection of correspondence, code and documents" that would "give some insight into the science and the people behind it." The stolen material was first publicised on 19 November on The Air Vent, a climate-sceptic blog.

Reactions

Climate change sceptics asserted that the e-mails showed scientists had colluded to overstate the case for man-made global warming, and manipulated the evidence. Myron Ebell, the Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, claimed the e-mails showed that some climate scientists "are more dedicated to promoting the alarmist political agenda than in scientific research. Some of the e-mails that I have read are blatant displays of personal pettiness, unethical conniving, and twisting the science to support their political position." Patrick J. Michaels of the Cato Institute called the e-mails "not a smoking gun; this is a mushroom cloud" and climate-sceptic blogger Stephen McIntyre described their contents as "quite breathtaking." The Washington Post's correspondent Juliet Eilperin wrote that the e-mails revealed "an intellectual circle that appears to feel very much under attack, and eager to punish its enemies." She commented that the material provides "a rare glimpse into the behind-the-scenes battle to shape the public perception of global warming."

According to the University of East Anglia, the leaked documents and e-mails had been selected deliberately to undermine the strong consensus that human activity is affecting the world's climate in ways that are potentially dangerous. The university said in a statement: "The selective publication of some stolen e-mails and other papers taken out of context is mischievous and cannot be considered a genuine attempt to engage with this issue in a responsible way".

The CRU's researchers said in a statement that the e-mails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas. Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, called the charges that the emails involve any "untoward" activity "ludicrous." Michael Mann, director of Pennsylvania State University's Earth System Science Center, told the Washington Post that sceptics were "taking these words totally out of context to make something trivial appear nefarious". Kevin E. Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said that he was "appalled" at the release of the e-mails but thought that it might backfire against climate sceptics, as the messages would show "the integrity of scientists." He has also said that the leak may be aimed at undermining talks at next month's Copenhagen global climate summit.

Computerworld magazine reported that the CEO of the consultancy Errata Security felt it was likely that an "insider" was responsible for the incident. It further reported RealClimate, a forum for climate change scientists, saying that what was not contained in the e-mails was the most interesting element: "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' [Medieval Warm Period], 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." The science historian Spencer R. Weart, interviewed in the Washington Post, commented that the theft of the e-mails and the reaction to them was "a symptom of something entirely new in the history of science: Aside from crackpots who complain that a conspiracy is suppressing their personal discoveries, we've never before seen a set of people accuse an entire community of scientists of deliberate deception and other professional malfeasance. Even the tobacco companies never tried to slander legitimate cancer researchers."

See also

• Global warming controversy
• Hockey stick controversy