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Speculative theory
Climategate EmailsAtlas
Environment & Climate · Climate change narratives
Thousands of emails and documents from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) were obtained without authorization and released publicly, an episode widely labeled Climategate. Critics of mainstream climate science argued that selected CRU emails showed researchers manipulating data presentations, resisting data requests, and seeking to influence peer review.
Open the caseClimategate2
- Documented · A second large batch of related emails was released in 2011 and was widely referred to as Climategate 2.0.
- Contested · Some later reporting concluded that Climategate had only a fleeting effect on levels of global-warming scepticism, a claim others disputed in ongoing public debate.
Climatic Research Unit2
- Contested · Critics of mainstream climate science argued that selected CRU emails showed researchers manipulating data presentations, resisting data requests, and seeking to influence peer review.
- Contested · Defenders of the CRU scientists argued that the same emails reflected ordinary technical discussion and private frustration taken out of context, not falsification of the underlying evidence for anthropogenic warming.
Copenhagen climate summit1
- Documented · The email release occurred in the period leading into the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit and was widely reported as casting a cloud of skepticism over that meeting.
John Costella1
- Documented · Compiled and annotated editions of the released emails circulated as primary reference material for critics, including a dossier associated with John Costella.
Michael Mann1
- Documented · Climate scientist Michael Mann publicly described the hacked Climategate emails as truly pathetic in later commentary on the episode.
University of East Anglia1
- Documented · Thousands of emails and documents from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) were obtained without authorization and released publicly, an episode widely labeled Climategate.
Other1
- Contested · Multiple media outlets, blogs, and commentators treated phrases from the emails as evidence of scientific misconduct, while other outlets and scientists described that reading as misleading.