International Law

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, A CONVENIENT LIE?

By Karel.Frielink

Global Warming Research Data Manipulated?

Computer hackers have broken into a server at a well-respected climate change research center of a University in Britain and posted hundreds of private e-mails and documents online ? fueling debate over whether some scientists have overstated the case for man-made climate change (click here).

According to the New York Times:

The e-mail messages, attributed to prominent American and British climate researchers, include discussions of scientific data and whether it should be released, exchanges about how best to combat the arguments of skeptics, and casual comments ? in some cases derisive ? about specific people known for their skeptical views. Drafts of scientific papers and a photo collage that portrays climate skeptics on an ice floe were also among the hacked data, some of which dates back 13 years.

In one e-mail exchange, a scientist writes of using a statistical ?trick? in a chart illustrating a recent sharp warming trend. In another, a scientist refers to climate skeptics as ?idiots.?

Who is to believe? Is it all about an inconventient truth or a convenient lie? A thorough investigation into the affair is required and for that purpose an international independent investigation Commission should be established. If it turns out that researchers / scientists lied and manipulated data, they should be held responsible for their actions and the consequences thereof.

Karel Frielink

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Full post as published by Karel's Legal Blog on November 24, 2009 (boomark / email).