Public Relations - Hacked Climate change emails

As some of you may know, hackers gained access to years worth of emails from an important climate change research center in Britain. They released them onto the internet a little while ago. I'd say they timed it more or less perfectly to coincide with the Copenhagen summit.

I have to give it to them. They are brilliant, and well organized. They knew that from years worth of emails, you can always find some that look damning out of context. These have been spread around the right wing blogosphere, and they've built up momentum to the point that the mainstream media is taking an interest.

Apparently the Saudis are now arguing that human caused climate change is now false, and that the warming was due to natural variation. Which is funny, given that the people bandying about these emails are saying they prove that there's been no warming at all. Which is also funny, given that the northwest passage is becoming navigable. But hey, throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

I'm impressed though, these guys have an excellent understanding of how the modern English language media works. Things don't get investigated. Instead, you find two sides, and report what both sides are saying. It's cheaper, and makes for more sensational stories.

From what I've read, there doesn't seem to be anything all that troubling there, when you take the time to examine them in context. Efforts to thwart the Freedom of Information act seem the most problematic. We'll see what the investigation turns up. No one will care by then though, as it will be after the Copenhagen talks. This is purely a short term move to thwart what remains of the momentum to do something at the conference.

Afterwards, it will be shown that it's nothing serious, and live on in right-winger lore, but that's about it. For anyone who's read some of the emails, and would like to know the context, this page has some of that.

I'm very impressed by the saavy and organizational prowess of the anti-climate change forces. They've managed to turn it into a left versus right culture war issue, an issue of freedom and the good guy underdog, against liberal elites. I imagine that's why less Americans believe in climate change than they did previously.

Someone should have told Margaret Thatcher that she was supposed to have believed it all to be a fraud. But her speech warning of the dangers of climate change was in 1990, before this became a hot issue, before the propagandists got to work on it.

Update: Here's a good overview of the situation from Fred Pearce. He also considers the long-term impact this may have on public support for the idea that climate change is occurring, something I should have considered.