Subscribe to my Feed
« Was the Senate Ethics Committee tough enough on Roland Burris? | Home | Give thanks! »
Please, tell us the truth about global warming!
By Lauren | November 25, 2009
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that a group of scientists who contend that human activities are responsible for global warming may have been suppressing contrary research. According to the WSJ, thousands of e-mails and documents were obtained from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University in the U.K. and posted on the Internet last week. Those documents suggest that there has been a concerted effort by global warming researchers to prevent a vocal minority of scientists who disagree with their conclusions from getting published.
That suggestion is troubling enough. What makes matters even worse is that the emails and documents in question were allegedly stolen and posted online by anonymous hackers. That makes it easy for the university to dismissed their publication as “mischievious,” and not “a genuine attempt to engage with this issue in a responsible way.” However noble their intent may have been, the unnamed thieves have given the university a perfect excuse not to address the troubling content of the stolen documents at all.
There’s an old saying that two wrongs don’t make a right, and it certainly applies here. Climate change could harm everyone on Earth, so we all have an interest in knowing the extent of global warming and whether human activity is causing it. If legitimate scientific research and debate are being stifled, we need to know that, too. But if the only proof we have that researchers in the majority have engaged in such allegedly unethical conduct was obtained by equally unethical means, how seriously can we take it?
If the hackers who published the university’s documents want the world to pay attention to their concerns, they should publicly identify themselves and explain why they felt compelled to steal their evidence. Then, let’s hear from the scientists who’ve allegedly suppressed contrary research from their rivals about whether the accusations against them are true. Global warming is too important an issue to allow egos, professional feuds and unethical behavior to distort the discussion. Come on, folks - put the games aside and tell us the truth.
To read the WSJ article, go to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125883405294859215.html.
Topics: Business Ethics, Professional Ethics, Social Ethics, business communications, ethics |
December 10th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Thanks for this info. Additional discussions similar to this topic can be found at the World’s Largest Forum.