Category: global warming
November 26th, 2009
East Anglia chronology, so far
1) University of East Anglia hacked documents appear online. We now know that a month ago the same docs were apparently offered to a British reporter who did nothing with them. During that time the University apparently did NOT know it had been hacked. Duh.
2) Reaction to hacking. Some early responses claim deception and fraud.
3) Global warming skeptics trumpet the emails, ignore the illegality. See data tampering.
5) One left-wing paper finds no conspiracy, no cover-up but plenty of dull emails about lunch. Realclimate website says somebody tried to put the stolen docs on their site. They alerted the ripped-off university, hitherto oblivious to the global role they were about to play.
6) East Anglia hacking shows clear dividing line in opinions on einvornmental regulations. Rush Limbaugh says the docs were liberated by a whistleblower. ZDnet poll respondents heavily in favor of full disclosure of all global warming data and documents. One left-wing colunist calls for resignation of Eaat Anglia researcher prominent in the emails.
Loading ...November 26th, 2009
India goes to Copenhagen
As the world’s fourth largest producer of CO2 emissions, India is crucial to any possible agreement in Copenhagen next month. Here’s a look at how that nation’s leaders see the international emissions debate.
India has positioned itself as spokesnation for many underdeveloped nations: the rich guys should pay first and pay most. Don’t hold back India because you’ve been driving cars and burning tons of coal for decades. We in India have a right to our share of the economic pie.
This argument will be parroted in the U.S.Congress by those working to stop any energy and emission regulation law. See, they can say, if we clamp down on our pollutilon it will just give India another economic advantage in competing with our corporations and leach out even more U.S. jobs. Once the media have forgotten about the medical insurance issue, jobs and the lack of jobs in the U.S. will become the national obsession. So job-related arguments will be paramount for most of 2010, an election year as well.
November 26th, 2009
East Anglia: anger and aggro
Still no public info on who hacked the Univrersity of East Anglia’s climate study center.
One right-wing British pub finds the “climate change lobby” to be “oviously traumatised.” And then goes on to warn that the global warming crowd has shifted its tactics to “cleaner air is good for you.” Does anybody really think all the human-caused particulates and nitrous compounds in the air are simply adding fiber to our diet? Well, that writer’s conclusion: clean air, be afraid, be very afraid. Just another conpsiracy to take away your freedom?
On our sister website, here’s a look at the code behind the hockey stick temperature curve developed at East Anglia. Code or crud? Using that CBS report as a basis, one “Atlantic” writer anlyzes what’s really at stake in the East Anglia affair.
The facts remain: even if East Anglia never had a university, ice sheets and glaciers are melting, the Northwest Passage is now real, plants and animals are shifting their range upslope or northward in response to milder winters. At issue after East Anglia: how far does this climate change go and should we try to do anything about it?
It would be extremely naive, it seems to me, to assume that anything humans do or don’t do about global warming will have the intended affect. Our ignorance of the our planet remains massive. Unintended consequences are almost certain to ensue.
WHO’S FOOLING WHO?
Wow, a Murdoch-owned website actually published, in the UK, a column on how the current campaign against climate change science mirrors the tobacco industry’s defense of its cancer sticks over decades. That’s a parallel I’ve blogged about a few times. Now the fossil fuel industry is funding the disinformation on climate change.Until the 1970s some tobacco ads actually claimed health-enhancing attributes for their cigarettes. Then they pretended that filtered cigarettes were healthy.
Today tobacco companies, BTW, basically stopped fighting in developed countries and now focus on poor and ill-informed populations. And some impoverished governments are only too happy to have tobacco companies’ freindship and prevent any tobacco regulations.
November 24th, 2009
East Anglia hacking: is this the ultimate litmus test on environmental politics?
It seems the response a group or person has to the East Anglia climate center hack job is a good indication of moral and political values.
Unprecedented? Guess he chooses to overlook the tobacco companies’ efforts to cleanse records connecting cigarettes and various cancers. And then there’s the usual claim that cleaning up the atmosphere is too costly. In fact, like scrubbing the gases that were causing acid rain, cleaning the air often creates more jobs and more profits as well as makes the planet healthier.
That scientist granted his first interview since the theft. He says there is no conspiracy. “That the world is warming is based on a range of sources: not only temperature records but other indicators such as sea level rise, glacier retreat and less Arctic sea ice.”
It’s likely there’ll be a United Kingdom government investigation, not just of the theft, but the actions of those at the East Anglia climate study center. Says one British scientist, “The selective disclosure and dissemination of the messages has created the impression of impropriety, and the only way of clearing the air now would be through a rigorous investigation. ”
The BBC quotes one American climate scientist on the issue of transparency:
“The need for public credibility and transparency has dramatically increased in recent years as the policy relevance of climate research has increased.”
That’s shorthand for “We’re asking countries to make the kind of effort that usually goes for war or hosting the Olympics, so let’s be careful.”
That opinion in favor of transparency coincides with the majority of ZDnet blog readers repsonding to our poll on the hacking affair.
Loading ...There’ll no doubt be much palaver in the U.S. Congress with Republican global warming skeptics there already calling for an investigation.
So far there’s no indication the hacking and publication of the docs from East Anglia will have any material effect on the Copenhagen talks.
November 24th, 2009
Climate scientists saying global warming trend is worsening
Today a 64-page “Copenhagen Diagnosis” was released by a group of climate scientists from several nations. They say now it looks like the average global temps couldclimb more than ten degrees Fahrenheit this century. Sea levels could increase more than three feet.
This report concludes that CO2 levels in the atmosphere are near the top of what the IPCC thought was possible when they issued their most recent report in 2007. The group says work on reducing man-caused greenhouse gasemissions must begin now.
“Our available emissions to ensure a reasonably secure climate future are just about used up,” said Matthew England, co-director of the Climate Change Research Centre of the University of New South Wales in Australia.
The group urges international action at the Copenhagen talks that begin December 7.
November 23rd, 2009
Atmospheric CO2 levels to hit million-year high
American scientists say the CO2 levels in the earth’s atmosphere are going to hit levels not seen in the past million years. Current climate change theory says CO2 is one of the gases that is causing global warming.
Researchers say the additional CO2 entering the atmosphere is stable and can remain for thousands of years. As fast as plants absorb CO2, more is being added. The IPCC says the additional CO2 is partially due to human acticity, especially burning fossil fuels and wood.
The rise of CO2 in the atmosphere has been measured since 1998 when records were first kept. This past year has seen the CO2 concentration increase slightly faster. The World Moeteorlogical Organization says the increase began with the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago. The three main greenhouse gases are CO2, methane and N2O (nitrous oxide). All three have both natural and man-made causes.
The IPCC projects that the current CO2 emission curve would raise global temps from 4.3 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit by century’s end. Temperatures are already 1 degree higher in the past century. The IPCC says this warming’s mainly due to the build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Such warming is predicted to change weather patterns with more extreme weather events. More drought and famine. Political and demographic disruption. More floods. Extinction of numerous plant and animal species. Rising sea levels along with the melting of land ice. Those are the IPCC predictions. Sounds like just another 2012 movie, doesn’t it?
November 23rd, 2009
British scientists call for action in Copenhagen
If you don’t care to read it, they’re saying: evidence of global warming is piling up, things are already deteriorating and humans should do something. Not mentioning the East Anglia hacking there in the UK, they say, “Climate scientists from the UK and across the world are in overwhelming agreement about the evidence of climate change, driven by the human input of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”
The Copenhagen climate conference begins December 7th.
November 23rd, 2009
East Anglia hacking: no arrest, plenty of investigation
I’ve blogged about how global warming skeptics and ring-wing newspapers have been enjoying greatly their own interpretation of the emails and docs hacked from the University of East Anglia climate study center. Police have made no arrests in the cyber-theft. But investigations now are legion. And the findings break down along predictable political lines.
Here’s a left-wing British publicaiton condemning the letters for…being “dull.” No conspiracy, no cover-up. Lots of references to lunch. That pub goes on to talk about the global warming deniers use of strong emotional appeal to undermine the science.
The realclimate website was where the hackers originally tried to upload the documents, apparently. Realclimate alerted East Anglia’s climate center to the possible theft.
Realclimate says it’s been through the emails and found, “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. The truly paranoid will put this down to the hackers also being in on the plot though.”
On the other side, conservative observers can find conspiracy in the emails. Here’s one talkback on an American news website “It appears that the East Anglia researchers have been not only refusing to share the raw data, but actively doctoring the results. Science has now been politicized by the left, like liberal arts, like entertainment, like what passes for print journalism. This has been going on for decades and there are no trustworthy sources anymore, which is tragic.”
Loading ...Some readers may question why I do not post the original documents or at least excerpts as many other bloggers have. I know the hacked material is now in the public domain, if illegally so. However, I won’t take part in what is a deliberate crime of cyber-theft, the releasing of documents never intended for public circulation. I shudder to think how many emails I’ve written about stupid people I disagree with, or going to lunch.
November 22nd, 2009
East Anglia: one hacked U.S. scientist is hacked off
One American climate scientist says the hacked documents from the University of East Anglia are being used for propaganda, that only those hurting global warming scientists were released. The scientist found over 100 of his own emails posted online and said he was appalled. He went on to say the emails were posted out of context and some stolen material was not released.
The scientist also pointed out that the Copenhagen climate conference begins in two weeks.
Meanwhile global warming skeptics are having a fine time. The “Daily Mail” has this column on the stolen emails “…now come these leaked emails showing that the very scientists who were responsible for championing the hockey stick - all at the heart of the IPCC establishment - have been regularly discussing how the evidence could be manipulated to promote their cause.”
A right-wing American paper claims, “A partial review of the hacked material suggests there was an effort at East Anglia, which houses an important center of global climate research, to shut out dissenters and their points of view.”
Clearly this is going to be grist for much future name-calling and fear mongering. Is global warming threatening the future of civilization or is it just the figment of a global warming conspiracy?
Here are the three previous blogs on the East Anglia hacking:
The story breaks on Friday.
Early reaction.
More reaction.
Loading ...November 21st, 2009
East Anglia: Chapter 3
More projections and extrapolations based on the hacked emails and documents from the University of East Anglia.
Police are investigating this data theft. The University says it cannot confirm that all the documents are genuine. The University’s public statement says the theft and release of the documents were done to deliberately undermine “the strong consensus that human activity is affecting the world’s climate in ways that are potentially dangerous.”
Copenhagen climate talks begin December 7, but it’s already been conceded that no binding agreement is likely to result from the talks.My first East Anglia blog. The second.
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A newsman since 1969, Harry Fuller has worked for CBS, ABC, CNBC Europe, CNET and was founding news director at TechTV. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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