Climategate Furor Refuses to Die Down

Especially in the U.K.

Though the "Climategate" scandal has quieted down stateside, it seems to have made its mark on the British public, with a new BBC poll showing a 9 percent uptick in climate change skepticism between November and February. The British press recently uncovered errors of the UN climate panel, fueling skepticism further. Discussion in the U.S., however, remains relatively confined to camps of environmentalists and right-wing skeptics. Here’s a taste of the fallout on both sides of the pond:

• In Britain, Implicated Scientist Contemplated Suicide  Daniel Cressey at Nature relays the trials of Phil Jones, the East Anglia scientist whose hacked emails prompted "Climategate" and who has become a punching bag for the British public: "'I did think about it, yes. About suicide,’ he says. ‘I thought about it several times, but I think I’ve got past that stage now.’ Jones also told the paper he is now on beta blockers and taking sleeping pills in the aftermath of the email theft. He continues to receive death threats."

• Cover-Up Will Only Spur More Skepticism, warns a Guardian editorial: "It is bad science and bad politics to counter skepticism with righteous indignation. In the long run, public confidence will be inspired more by frankness about what science cannot explain.
  

• Climate Advocates Will Lose Support Unless They Explain Themselves, Kevin Drum cautions at Mother Jones: “The CRU emails mostly seemed overblown to me, and taken by themselves they'd probably have blown over pretty quickly. But start adding all this other stuff—even if none of it really affects the core claims of climate change—and the public is going to tune out even more than it already has unless the climate community either provides some explanations post haste or else makes credible commitments to clean up its act in the very near future."

• Don’t Stop at Emails—Follow the Money! urges Pajamas Media CEO Roger Simon. In an attempt to get in on the climate change exposé game, Pajamas is asking readers for help investigating the financial trail of this “giant metastasizing scam”: “There are plenty of high rent dots to be connected here with much pertinent information to be revealed and names to be named. I am writing this post to solicit your help. Just as the blogosphere was so instrumental in dissecting the science, it can also help track the money.”