The Guardian asks, “How has ‘Climategate’ affected the battle against climate change?” :-
I think the appropriate question would be, “How has Climategate poisoned the minds of journalists and their editors ?”
Ben Stewart of Greenpeace gets it spot on :-
“Stewart says it is the media, not the CRU scientists, who are to blame for any extra confusion among the public…”The emails didn’t change the way that carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere, but the media created a situation that presented a false symmetry between the various sides of the debate.”
The newspapers and TV programmes are in danger of losing their customers if they continue selling such dodgy wares.
Climategate has been a pseudo-scandal, written in the language of acrimony and suspicion, personal and professional attacks making claims of bad behaviour amongst scientists, arguments with extremely poor foundations.
Yet the Science still stands. Climate Change is still happening and we are still responsible for it. “We” in the inclusive sense, that is. The majority of bad behaviour is to be found in the business plans of energy companies. They show little intention of de-carbonising the resources of energy they sell to the rest of us.
The Media is a circus on Climate Change, but not a very entertaining one.
It’s time for some proper science journalism in the daily press.