{"id":428,"date":"2009-12-09T14:08:02","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T14:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/whats-true-and-whats-not-about-climategate.html"},"modified":"2009-12-09T14:08:02","modified_gmt":"2009-12-09T14:08:02","slug":"whats-true-and-whats-not-about-climategate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/whats-true-and-whats-not-about-climategate.html","title":{"rendered":"What’s True and What’s Not About ‘Climategate’"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I’ve received some emails asking me
\nwhat I know about “Climategate” – the alleged scandal exposed when thirteen
\nyears of emails at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia,
\nUK, were hacked, and disseminated by right wing sources.  <\/span>The hacked emails certainly demonstrate
\nunethical and secretive behavior by some of the key people at this
\norganization.  <\/span>But what exactly
\ndoes it all mean?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

I think two issues arise.  <\/span>The first concerns organizational
\nbehavior, and is a genuine problem. 
\n<\/span>It receives little notice. 
\n<\/span>The second is whether any of this is relevant to the global warming
\nissue.  <\/span>This is unfortunately the
\nmost important, because ignorant people (and worse) have claimed the hacked
\nemails demonstrate dishonesty and fraud by scientists regarding the most
\nimportant issue of our day. <\/span><\/p>\n

The misuse of emails taken entirely
\nout of context by people who literally do not know what they are talking about
\nis fully exposed in a great Youtube broadcast<\/a>  that I hope every denier of global warming denier will take the time to
\nwatch.  <\/span>I think the rest of us
\nshould take a look as well – it’s entertaining as well as devastating and as a
\nside benefit, demonstrates the utter intellectual bankruptcy of the right.<\/p>\n

What is the real issue here?  <\/span>People associated with \u00ad\u00ad\u00adglobal
\nwarming research acted unethically in trying to suppress articles they disagreed
\nwith.  <\/span>They tried to keep control
\nof their data, and often referred to opponents in disparaging terms.  <\/span>In short, they acted as members of
\nalmost any organization tend to act when under intense hostile pressure from
\nthe outside: they confused their organization’s well-being with the mission the
\norganization was established to accomplish.  <\/span>They fell into an “us vs. them” mentality.<\/p>\n

Ironically the most intelligent
\ncondemnations of this failing have come from fellow scientists and the science
\npress.  <\/span>The Nov. 28 issue of New
\nScientis<\/a>t  <\/span>takes them to task for abuses of
\nscientific ethics.  Meanwhile right wing sources have continued to make their case with
\nbreathtaking dishonesty<\/a>.   <\/span><\/p>\n

But does any of this bear on the
\nglobal warming issue?  <\/span>No.  <\/span>No more than corrupt and dishonest
\nCatholic bishops<\/a> discredit spirituality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve received some emails asking me what I know about “Climategate” – the alleged scandal exposed when thirteen years of emails at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, UK, were hacked, and disseminated by right wing sources.  The hacked emails certainly demonstrate unethical and secretive behavior by some of the key…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-science-and-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's True and What's Not About 'Climategate' - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/12\/whats-true-and-whats-not-about-climategate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What's True and What's Not About 'Climategate' - 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