ABC News: Skeptics also accused the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of supporting flawed science after several errors in a major 2007 report surfaced.
The errors, including a reference to a non-peer reviewed study that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, represent a fraction of the conclusions in the report, the main climate policy guide for governments, which is based on the work of thousands of scientists.
The IPCC has defended its work and has ordered a review. Many governments, including the United States, Britain and Australia have also reiterated their faith in the IPCC.
For climate scientists, truth and trust are at stake.
“In general, the battle for public opinion is being lost,” said Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. His emails were also hacked in the CRU incident.
“There is so much mis-information and so many polarized attitudes that one can not even hold a rational discussion or debate. The facts are certainly lost or glossed over in many cases. The media have been a bust.”
Schneider said the mainstream media had failed to do “its job of sorting out credible from non-credible and not giving all claimants of truth equal status at the bargaining table.”
Across the Internet, the climate science debate is being played out in a myriad of climate skeptic sites and blogs as well as sites defending the science of human-induced climate change.
One high-profile site is climatedepot.com, run by Marc Morano, a former aide to Republican Senator James Inhofe, who is an outspoken critic of climate change policies.
Morano, who told Reuters he had also been the target of abusive emails, has been quoted as saying that climate scientists should be publicly flogged.
“The global warming scientists need to feel and hear the public’s outrage at their shenanigans like “climategate” … There is no advocacy of violence or hint that people should threaten them,” Morano said, adding: “Public outrage is healthy.”