Thanks for the Reminder

What the criminals who illegally hacked into private emails at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit didn’t know is how much their calculated actions right before the start of the international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen would do for the cause. The cause of science that is.

If anything, the story has lit a fire under many of us in the community to get back to the basics of communicating the science about global warming. It’s always been a story in three parts. We’ve tended to focus on the benefits of strong climate and energy legislation to improving the economy (millions of new jobs) and our national security (let’s stop sending $1 billion overseas to buy oil), with the science of global warming -- sometimes taking a back seat. Thanks to the hackers, that’s all changed.

We’ve now had more than three weeks and counting of coverage on what’s really happening to the only planet we have. Scientists are now front and center telling us that the body of evidence that human activity is the dominant cause of global warming is overwhelming. And that global warming is not only real, but a growing threat to society. We’ve been reminded of all the places we can go to get more details on the science. You can start with the U.S. Global Change Research Program, on the impacts here in the U.S., or check out the Copenhagen Diagnosis. Or, let’s just stick to the basics:

• Temps this decade have been higher than any other decade on record
• Ocean temperatures this summer were hotter than ever previously recorded
• Stable sea ice in the Arctic melted to its lowest recorded levels this summer -- declining more than 60% since the 1980s and 1990s.
• Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere for 2009 (387 parts per million) are the highest they have been in about 15 million years.
• 8.7 billion tons of carbon were added to the atmosphere in 2008 from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas -- a 41% increase from 1990.

Ironic as it is, thanks to the criminals, science is back in the front seat where it belongs.