Take Action: Help “Hide the Decline”

A few weeks ago, a scandal – coined “climategate” – allegedly erupted when a decade’s worth of emails were stolen from some of the world’s top climate scientists working in the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. Global warming deniers are trying to use these cherry-picked emails to block action on climate legislation but you can help make sure they don’t succeed.

I have been covering the controversy around the stolen emails for the past few weeks but have declined to post on it because I didn’t want to feed into this mock-scandal. Instead of providing background on the incident here – including why this supposed controversy is really just a ploy cooked up to delay addressing climate change – I will point you to some websites that do a better job than I could ever do clarifying this unfortunate situation.

First, check out climateprogress.org for a good description of the situation and why it’s a nonstory.

Second, check out Realclimate.org for a more-or-less direct refutation of virtually all the supposed evils revealed in the hacked emails.

Now, if you are like me and you believe that this unfortunate situation is travesty and an intentional misrepresentation of climate science, read the letter below from Eban Goodstein, Director of the National Teach-In on Global Warming:

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The hacked e-mails from climate scientists have energized the denialist community: one of the most jaw-dropping comments came from “Superfreakonomics” co-author Steven Dubner who told Fox News that “scientists were “colluding” with Al Gore in “distorting evidence.” He insisted that “you can’t read these emails and feel that the IPCC’s or the major climate scientists’ findings and predictions about global warming are kosher.”

Now you too can help “hide the decline”. No, not a (non-existent) decline in the global temperature data, but a decline in the voices of people who understand the science. As educators, many of us are stunned that a few private e-mails are somehow calling into question three decades of peer-reviewed research by thousands of the world’s top scientists. Nevertheless, because you and I are not speaking out, but the deniers are, it is happening, and we have the obligation to set the record straight.

What can you do?

1. Help us organize statewide conference calls with your US Senate offices this spring. We need to get 500 people on the line each from Indiana, Tennessee, Ohio, Nevada and 46 other states—to have a real conversation with Senate staff about real issues. The Bard Center for Environmental Policy will do all the work setting up the calls, but we need your help getting the word out. To learn more, give me a call at 845-758-8067, or e-mail us at climate@bard.edu.

2. Call your US Senate Office today (find the numbers here) and let them know that these e-mails have in no way undermined the scientific case of global warming, and that the planet is in fact heating up just as scientists have predicted. A great Peter Sinclair video explaining the issue is here.

3. Send in letter on the e-mails to the editor, or write an op-ed for your regional paper.

Next Wednesday, December 16th, I will be calling into on The National Climate Seminar live from Copenhagen. While it is clear that “a grand deal” will not emerge in the next two weeks, I will be discussing whether a binding international agreement appears possible to emerge by next year’s meetings in Mexico, and what that might look like. Join us at 3 PM eastern—call in info is here.
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Thanks for the work you are doing.

Professor Eban Goodstein

Director, National Teach-In on Global Warming