Climatic Research Unit email controversy
| Date | 17 November 2009 |
|---|---|
| Location | Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia |
| Also known as | "Climategate" |
| Inquiries | House of Commons Science and Technology Committee (UK) Independent Climate Change Email Review (UK) International Science Assessment Panel (UK) Pennsylvania State University (US) United States Environmental Protection Agency (US) Department of Commerce (US) |
| Verdict | Exoneration or withdrawal of all major or serious charges |
The Climatic Research Unit email controversy (also known as "Climategate") began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) by an external attacker, copying thousands of emails and computer files, the Climatic Research Unit documents, to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change.
The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term "Climategate" to describe the controversy. Several people considered climate change "skeptics" argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy, that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics. The CRU rejected this, saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas.
The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009. Because of the timing, scientists, policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference. In response to the controversy, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades, with the AAAS concluding, "based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway... it is a growing threat to society."
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