About four years ago, I wrote in the North County Times that the scientific case for global warming had been corroborated and blasted industry-funded skeptics as deceiving the public.
But since then I’ve had to confront evidence countering the widely held belief anthropogenic global warming really was settled science, as we are assured by non-scientist Al Gore..
A rival hypothesis, that the sun and cosmic rays influence cloud cover and hence temperatures, continues to generate peer-reviewed scientific papers. And the willingness of activists to embrace the most extreme, costly solutions, and to ignore less drastic interim steps, suggested by mainstream scientists, seems to be a political decision.
The recently leaked “Climategate” emails of climate scientists put many of the top researchers in an even less flattering light. The emails discuss keeping information from global warming skeptics, including what’s explicitly described as “dirty laundry.” Scientists discuss ways to ‘hide” data that suggest the climate is cooling. They discuss illegally deleting information subject to a Freedom of Information request. Doctoring records that don’t support global warming. Secretly colluding to thwart publication of skeptical science articles. And so on.
With some of these emails, it’s possible to squint your eyes just so, and pull out an innocent explanation, and that’s what some global warming believers have done. But it takes a real feat of mental gymnastics to do this for all of these emails. And some emails have no innocent explanation: The scientists explicitly admit they are hiding damaging data and trying to purge skeptics from the profession.
Climate science is in dire need of ethical housecleaning. The longer climate scientists delay and deny, the worse it will be for them, and for us.
