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Good news: ‘Climategate’ investigation supports US scientists, climate science

Just before the start of COP15 in Copenhagen thousands of emails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the UK were leaked online. What followed was the manufactured ‘Climategate’ controversy where skeptics and deniers alleged that scientists had been fudging their data and that we should no longer be concerned about record levels of carbon dioxide and other climate destabilizing gases being released into the atmosphere.  

Last Friday, the US Commerce Department released its own ‘Climategate’ investigation, concluding:

In our review of the CRU emails, we did not find any evidence that NOAA inappropriately manipulated data comprising the [Global Historical Climatology Network] dataset or failed to adhere to appropriate peer review procedures.

For those keeping score at home this follows investigations by the British House of Commons’ Science and Technology committee, an independent body, and an international panel created by the University East Anglia. Each one affirmed the integrity of the science linking human activities (e.g. burning fossil fuels, industrial agriculture, deforestation) to our warming and changing climate.  

(Photo credit: UK Graffiti artist Banksy’s take on climate change denial, Guardian UK)