U.S. & World

NEW YORK (CBS) ― The debate between skeptics and supporters of global warming has heated up recently as hackers managed to get a hold of e-mail correspondences between some of the world's leading scientists involved in researching the issue. The anonymous group posted many of the purported e-mails on the Internet.

At the center of the story is the claim that scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in Britain were attempting to fudge temperature data to help bolster the theory that humans are to blame for global warming.

Officials from the research unit confirmed Saturday that their servers were hacked, but say they cannot confirm the authenticity of all the e-mails posted online.

More than a decade of correspondence between leading British and U.S. scientists is included in about 1,000 e-mails and 3,000 documents posted on Web sites following the security breach last week.

In one leaked e-mail, the research center's director, Phil Jones, writes to colleagues about graphs showing climate statistics over the last millennium.

The particular part of the e-mail purportedly supporting the claims of data tampering reads: "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e., from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline. ..."

Some evidence appears to show a halt in a rise of global temperatures from about 1960, but is contradicted by other evidence which appears to show a rise in temperatures is continuing, according to the Associated Press.

"Mike" in the e-mail is apparently Michael Mann, a professor at Pennsylvania State University whose work has appeared in the journal "Nature." It was unclear who Jones was referring to as "Keith."

The university commented on the hack and the purported "smoking gun" in a press release, which confirms that the document is genuine. Jones, Director offered an explanation for the e-mail alluding to a "trick":

(The e-mail) has caused a great deal of ill-informed comment, but has been taken completely out of context and I want to put the record straight.

The word 'trick' was used here colloquially as in a clever thing to do. It is ludicrous to suggest that it refers to anything untoward.

Mixed Reactions To Leaked Documents

Andrew C. Revkin of the New York Times writes: The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument. However, the documents will undoubtedly raise questions about the quality of research on some specific questions and the actions of some scientists.

Mann spoke to Revkin, confirming that the e-mail was indeed real. He noted, however, that the term "trick" didn't necessarily point to anything malicious, but that the writer was just refering to a good way to solve a problem.

Mann also told the Washington Post that critics are "taking these words totally out of context..."

Another expert the Washington Post spoke with, Myron Ebell, claims the illegally obtained documents do indeed show that the researchers are in cahoots to solidify the theory that humans are the cause of climate change.

"It is clear that some of the 'world's leading climate scientists,' as they are always described, are more dedicated to promoting the alarmist political agenda than in scientific research," Ebell told the Washington Post. Ebell is the director of energy and global warming policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is funded in part by energy companies, according to the paper.

According to the British publication the Telegraph, the documents were first uploaded to a Russian server before being swept across the Internet.

The Telegraph reports: An anonymous statement accompanying the emails said: "We feel that climate science is too important to be kept under wraps. We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents. Hopefully it will give some insight into the science and the people behind it."

CRU researchers played a key role in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, which is considered to be the most authoritative report of its kind, according to BBC News.

As IPCC explains on its Web site: The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change is the leading body for the assessment of climate change, established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences.

The hack comes ahead of the United Nation's much anticipated Climate Change Conference being held Dec. 7-18 in Copenhagen, when 192 nations will seek to reach a binding treaty to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases worldwide.

The United Nations News Center published a story Nov. 19 on the upcoming conference, which reads: With just 17 days left before the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, a top UN official today predicted success for a framework accord including specific reduction targets from the United States, the only hold-out among industrialized nations, with a formal treaty to follow within six months.

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