Climategate, part two

By H.G.

CLIMATE sceptics are jubilant. In a reprise of the run-up to the Copenhagen climate-change summit in 2009, a fresh batch of possibly compromising e-mails has been released on the eve of the latest round of UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa. "All your favorite Climategate characters are here," gloats one, "once again caught red-handed in a series of emails exaggerating the extent of Anthropogenic Global Warming, while privately admitting to one another that the evidence is nowhere near as a strong as they'd like it to be."

The latest hacked snippets from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit resemble the earlier ones. They apparently discuss not putting in too much "optimistic stuff" about the extent of man-made global warming. One e-mail appears to show the government's interest in a strong line on climate change.

The implicated scientists insist that the comments have been pulled out of context and, in fact, are completely benign. Andrew Watson, from the University of East Anglia, sums up the general feeling when he says that these selective quotes show that climate scientists are "a diverse, sometimes contradictory" bunch, with assorted motives. "Welcome to the human race!" he says. By being sceptical, argumentative and critical of themselves and each other, he continues, they are simply applying the scientific method. In doing so, they are inching towards an understanding of the climate. Dr Watson thinks that nothing in the e-mails challenges the fact that the world has warmed significantly in the last 100 years and that this has most likely been caused by human beings spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

As before, the furore surrounding the leaked e-mails underlines the need to be more open about the uncertainties with science, according to Bob Ward, of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change. That is important, for this is unlikely to be the last episode of "climategate". There are reportedly more than 200,000 messages the perpetrator of the leaks is hoarding. Expect more to hit the fan at future strategic moments.