Every time I think HuffPo has devolved into digital fish wrap with little to offer beyond Celeb gossip and pr0n, they publish something that has journalistic value that keeps me checking back.
Today, they have printed out a detailed and well-documented list about the recent SwiftHack email piracy and the wingnut spin on its value.
ClimateGate: The 7 Biggest Lies About The Supposed "Global Warming Hoax":
As world attention turns to the climate conference in Copenhagen this December, this email hack acts as a distraction from the huge task at hand of getting world leaders to commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As professor Richard Somerville says, "We're facing an effort by special interests who are trying to confuse the public."
In brief:
CLAIM: These scientists worked to suppress evidence and deleted emails.
TRUTH: Thousands of emails from over 13 years were stolen, and edited, and have been taken out of context for those with a political agenda
CLAIM: Scientists have manipulated data.
TRUTH: Skeptics have been pointing to an email from scientist Phil Jones where he said he used a "trick" with his data. As climate expert Bob Ward writes, "Scientists say 'trick' not just to mean deception. They mean it as a clever way of doing something -- a short cut can be a trick."
CLAIM: Scientists had private doubts about whether the world really is heating up.
TRUTH: Combing through over a decade of personal correspondence, which is then taken out of context can seem to prove just about anything. Skeptics have been pointing to one email from Kevin Trenberth, in which he said, "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." However, this is clear example of cherrypicking quotes. Trenberth was referring to that there was an "incomplete explanation" of the short-term variability of temperatures, but concludes that "global warming is unequivocally happening."
And so on. Feel free to go to the link and read the others. It's a short synopsis and they provide pretty pictures and polls! I'm trying hard to keep this brief here. Longer-winded pieces on the topic are widely available.
To date, I've heard plenty of blathering about all this SwiftHack "smoking gun" crap, and it appears that the right-wing noise machine has already claimed victory simply by having a story to "support" their propaganda.
It's important that we who are not so easily duped and dissuaded from actual science know the truth about the details of this illegal piracy. We are sure to come across a global warming denier someday who vomits up garbage about what these stolen emails purportedly reveal.
Knowing how to succinctly dismiss such talking points will turn people back toward reality, where hopefully they will someday see the light.
Read more:
Media Matters:
...critics have largely rested their claims on outlandish distortions and misrepresentations of the contents of the stolen emails, greatly undermining their dubious smears.
A Siegel yesterday:Faux for Balance: Post's Opinion Section Strikes Out on Climate Change, again
Josh Nelson:
The SwiftHack (ClimateGate) Scandal: What You Need to Know
(updates)
The Guardian:
There is "virtually no possibility" of a few scientists biasing the advice given to governments by the UN's top global warming body, its chair said today.
Finally, to anyone working in important fields around the world, let this little dust up be a lesson to remember from now on:
Don't send anything in an email that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the newspaper.
Period.