SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY

Stolen E-Mails and the IPCC

from BBC News Online

The content of stolen e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia has prompted much discussion about the way peer-reviewed science is conducted. But it is also raising questions among some scientists about the workings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC, steered by governments and drawing on the work of thousands of scientists and other experts, is the world's biggest peer-review body. It was formed because politicians needed definitive advice about the effects of greenhouse gases.

Most policymakers rely in large part on the IPCC's summary reports--so the summaries involve a battle of wills and opinions in the distillation of thousands of studies into climate change. ... The CRU holds one of the key global data sets on temperature, so its data has helped underpin the IPCC's conclusions.