By restoring the reputation of the U.N.s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the reports released by a Netherlands environmental agency and a special British investigative panel should do much to dispel the widespread doubt generated by hackers who pinched nasty e-mails from the computers of climate scientists associated with the IPCC.
Or the reports would dispel doubt, if only the mainstream media showed sufficient interest in correcting the record. For what the probers found is that those embarrassing e-mails, considered in context, undermined neither the basic integrity of the scientists who authored them nor their dire conclusions about the potential impact of carbon dioxide pollution.
From “Climategate” debunking is (or should be) major news – Joe Conason – Salon.com
This is the next zombie lie that will soldier on for decades to come. In the future, right wing conspiracy nuts enjoying the fruits of the renewable energy economy will be writing revisionist histories about the whole climate change problem being a secret socialist hoax.
Of course having the media correct the record should be the first step. The second should be to call out all the people in the media who were quick to report the false scandal and slow to clarify that they were wrong and that there was no scandal. Lastly, those who insist on reporting this as a zombie lie for the next few decades should be called out as well.
