Sixteen years ago, on this day, November 17th, ,2009 email hack at the Climatic Research Unit of University of East Anglia.
“Early on the morning of November 17, Gavin Schmidt sat down at his computer and entered his password. It didn’t work. Strange, he thought. He tried a few other accounts and none of them worked, either. Now he was alarmed. As a leading climatologist with NASA’s Goddard Institute in Manhattan, he’d been hacked before. He was used to e-mails from people who disapproved of his work,
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 387ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that scientists doing “impact science” work on climate had been attacked, smeared and intimidated since 1989 (e.g. hatchet jobs on James Hansen). It had hit an early peak in 1994-5 when the IPCC’s second assessment report was underway. It had continued against Michael Mann for the “hockey stick”.
The specific context was the Copenhagen climate sumit was about to start – and those opposed to action were going to do absolutely anything they could to reduce the chances of progress (the chances were vanishingly low, btw).
What I think we can learn from this – we should see this attack as part of a longer trend.
What happened next – there were various investigations and it was deemed a “nothing burger” – except the denialists, obvs, cried ‘cover-up’.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
November 17, 1869 – Suez Canal opens – All Our Yesterdays
November 17, 1968 -The Observer covers carbon dioxide pollution… – All Our Yesterdays
November 17, 1968 – UK national newspaper flags carbon dioxide danger…
November 17, 1978 – British Wind Energy Association launches –
November 17, 1980 – International meeting about carbon dioxide build up.
November 17, 1994 – “When consumption is no longer sustainable”… –
November 17, 2018 – XR occupy five bridges in London
November 17, 2023 – two degrees warmer, for the first time… – All Our Yesterdays