Has anyone heard about this current 'scandal' in our midst?

A recent coffee meeting with a friend of mine suddenly turned out to be somewhat of a revelation. “What? You haven’t heard of ‘Climategate’? Yeah, global warming is all a big hoax!” he scoffed. Well, I can tell you that for a brief moment, I felt that I had been betrayed.

For those of you, who are unaware of Climategate, here is a brief rundown: Last month, a server, used by the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia was hacked into. The hacker allegedly unveiled e-mails pertaining to scientific climate data which had been altered or hidden from the public leading us to believe that global warming has been exaggerated.

There was no doubt that bloggers (on both sides of the argument) globally would get on the band wagon and put their political spin on things ( I suppose you could legitimately accuse me of this too). After all, let’s face it there’s a lot riding on this. A multimillion dollar industry is emerging in the form of renewable energy, our leaders are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss our next step in response to climate change and to be quite honest it would be rather annoying if it was all made up!

I had to investigate this further, was this a form of liberal fascism? Could this be turning into a religion based on rather dodgy evidence? Then I thought about the worst quote of all from one of the e-mails concerned, written by a climatologist known as Kevin Trenberth at the National Center for Atmospheric Research: “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t”.

I looked into it a little more. There was another side to this. Initially, I thought, isn’t it convenient that they’re all meeting in Copenhagen and there’s suddenly a scandal? Then, I had to take off my conspiracy theorist’s hat and replace it with some kind of logic. After doing a bit more research I came to the final conclusion which I would now like to share with you.

I found out that climate change is still a very real threat. The e-mails have not proven that the whole thing is a hoax - there are twenty years of scientific evidence that prove the contrary is true. Additionally there is always the question of specifics to consider. After all, we’re talking about science here - what papers are we referring to in this ‘scandal’?

Surely we must also question whether there are vested interests at work out there. Public Relations can be a very manipulative tool, but I don;t think I will proceed down that road right now. All I’ll say is manufactured doubt and the tobacco industry.

Okay, so let’s assume human caused global warming is all a big hoax what about all the other things to consider? Isn’t our reliance on fossil fuels a bit foolhardy? Let’s face it, when it’s gone it’s gone! What about creating efficient communities so there’s enough for everyone including those in developing countries? What about losing that consumer attitude and enjoying life more? What about pollution? Are these reasons not enough to fight for a transition from our old habits?

So personally speaking, I think I’m still going to do my thing. Our leaders are meeting in Copenhagen this month and I don’t think that our green paradigm should change. I think that the best option is to go back to the raw data, stop romanticizing about science and perhaps not put too much pressure on our scientists. Nor do I think there is any firm evidence that the Big Green Machine  is a huge conspiracy.

I think that the important lesson to learn from this is that with multiple news sources at our fingertips, we need to dig a little deeper to get the full picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPUpIBWGp8