Months after the brouhaha of Climategate, scientists have issued a rebuttal letter addressing the damage done to the credibility of their research and their reputations. The letter, published today in Science and signed by 250 members of the National Academies of Science, delineates the "fundamental conclusions about climate change" and calls for an end to "McCarthy-like threats of criminal prosecution."
Many recent assaults on climate science and, more disturbingly, on climate scientists by climate change deniers are typically driven by special interests or dogma, not by an honest effort to provide an alternative theory that credibly satisfies the evidence. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other scientific assessments of climate change, which involve thousands of scientists producing massive and comprehensive reports, have, quite expectedly and normally, made some mistakes. When errors are pointed out, they are corrected. But there is nothing remotely identified in the recent events that changes the fundamental conclusions about climate change.
The response comes after an independent review panel in the United Kingdom determined there was no "deliberate scientific malpractice" on the part of the Climate Research Unit at University of East Anglia. The climate scientists also take up the confusion many have about the presence of uncertainty in scientific conclusions. "When someone says that society should wait until scientists are absolutely certain before taking any action," it reads, "it is the same as saying society should never take action."
Photo by Paul Nicklen via National Geographic/Getty Images
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