The “Climategate†Conspiracy Theories
Posted by god 268 days ago (http://www.centerforinquiry.net)The global conspiracy to
cover up the “real” scientific evidence about climate change has
reached a fever pitch. First it was the climate scientists whose
e-mails were hacked a few weeks ago. Now the alleged co-conspirators
include the Associated Press. An exhaustive investigation into the
e-mails was conducted by the AP, and their findings were released recently:
"E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled
skeptics and discussed hiding data-- but the messages don't support
claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an
exhaustive review by The Associated Press. The 1,073 e-mails examined
by the AP show that scientists harbored private doubts, however slight
and fleeting, even as they told the world they were certain about
climate change. However, the exchanges don't undercut the vast body of
evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse
gas emissions...."
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=9319400
Apparently
uncomfortable with the idea that an independent journalistic
investigation might actually fail to find evidence of falsified data,
one prominent climate “controversy” blog (http://wattsupwiththat.com/)
claims that one of the coauthors of the AP report (Seth Borenstein) has
a conflict of interest because he was one of many reporters who
corresponded with the East Anglia scientists.
The accusation is nothing less than bizarre. The fact is that the
source material, the notorious hacked e-mails, are there for all to
see. It makes perfect sense that an AP science reporter who is familiar
with the subject of climate change would be one of the several
journalists assigned to analyze hacked e-mails about climate change.
This is not a “conflict of interest,” this is called good journalism.
Even if one of the AP reporters was somehow biased, anyone and
everyone can look for themselves to see if the AP investigation’s
conclusions are valid or not. If one of the world's largest and most
respected news organizations is actually part of a huge global
conspiracy, that story is itself far more interesting and significant
than the original hacked e-mails between climate scientists.
Of course, that's the great thing about conspiracy theories: they
are unscientific and illogical because they can't be disproven. All
evidence is suspect, and any evidence that refutes the conspiracy
believer’s claims is of course part of the conspiracy.
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