Climate change email hacking to be looked into by University of East Anglia

The University of East Anglia is to launch a review into the theft and online publication of hundreds of emails sent by scientists in its climate research unit.
Selected and unverified extracts from the emails have been used by climate change deniers to claim that the scientists colluded to manipulate climate data, causing a storm on deniers' blogs. The charge is rejected as "despicable" by those involved and as groundless by leading scientific bodies.
With less than two weeks before the crucial UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, climate scientists and campaigners are assessing the damage the incident has caused to the public understanding of global warming. Opinion was split last night over how to deal with the fallout.
Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, called for an investigation.
"Once appropriate action has been taken over the hacking, there has to be some process to assess the substance of the email messages as well," he said."The selective disclosure and dissemination of the messages has created the impression of impropriety, and the only way of clearing the air now would be through a rigorous investigation. "
However, others said an investigation would be a mistake, particularly as some climate sceptics were also calling for one....
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Picture Left:Climate protesters wearing masks of European leaders in Brussels on Monday. (Photograph: Yves Logghe/AP)