Kommentatoren George Monbiot, som har troverdighet i miljøbevegelsen, tror at e-postene fra forskerne ved klimasenteret i East Anglia er ekte. Han sier det er svært alvorlig for klimasaken at forskerne har manipulert data og forsøkt å stenge alternative synspunkt ute. Han mener leder for senteret, Phil Jones, må gå av.
Men Monbiot sier at avsløringene ikke rokker ved at oppvarmingen er menneskeskapt og utgjør en reell trussel.
It’s no use pretending this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them.
Yes, the messages were obtained illegally. Yes, all of us say things in emails that would be excruciating if made public. Yes, some of the comments have been taken out of context. But there are some messages that require no spin to make them look bad. There appears to be evidence here of attempts to prevent scientific data from being released, and even to destroy material that was subject to a freedom of information request.
Worse still, some of the emails suggest efforts to prevent the publication of work by climate sceptics, or to keep it out of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I believe that the head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign. Some of the data discussed in the emails should be re-analysed.
But do these revelations justify the sceptics’ claims that this is “the final nail in the coffin” of global warming theory? Not at all. They damage the credibility of three or four scientists. They raise questions about the integrity of one or perhaps two out of several hundred lines of evidence. To bury man-made climate change, a far wider conspiracy would have to be revealed.
The Guardian: Global warming rigged? Here’s the email I’d need to see
The leaked exchanges are disturbing, but it would take a
