Review: E-mails show pettiness, not fraud

From the AP via MSNBC:

E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled skeptics and discussed hiding data — but the messages don't support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an exhaustive review by The Associated Press.

The 1,073 e-mails examined by the AP show that scientists harbored private doubts, however slight and fleeting, even as they told the world they were certain about climate change. However, the exchanges don't undercut the vast body of evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

More here.

I've resisted posting on this "scandal" because recognizing it almost gives it a sense of legitimacy, and legitimacy is one thing this controversy lacked from the get-go. That is, it strikes me as extraordinarily implausible that some emails from a few scientists involved in global warming research somehow render moot the mountains of evidence which firmly establish human created global warming as fact. I'm also keenly aware of how right-wing cyberspace lunatics love to manufacture bullshit "reality". So I was immediately sure that these emails amounted to nothing, and was dead set on ignoring it all until the whole thing went away.

But what the hell. The AP was nice enough to spell everything out for us, so why not dance on the grave of yet another conservative attempt to send us all to hell? Moral of the story: until they start consistently telling the truth, everybody should be wildly skeptical of everything the right wing has to say. You know, the boy who cried wolf and all that.

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