This week there has been a lot in the newspapers about the climate change ‘debate’ and the hacked emails form the Climatic Research Unit. On Tuesday Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, came under fire for not apologising for the error over the melting rate of the Himalayan Glaciers and on Thursday there was the news that the emails may have been leaked by a researcher at the CRU, Paul Dennis. This has all fueled the fire behind the climate skeptics argument against anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

However, as pointed out by Dr Rajendra Pachauri and a second article this week, these errors and scandals do not undermine the simple fact that climate change is happening. Human activity emits vast quantities of CO₂. Fact. Atmospheric CO₂ causes global temperatures to rise. Fact. Global temperatures are higher than they have been for thousands of years and are continuing to rise. Fact.

“But look at the larger picture, don’t get blinded by this one mistake.The larger picture is solid, it’s convincing and it’s extremely important. How can we lose sight of what climate change is going to do to this planet? What it’s already doing to this planet?”

The climate skeptics argument is a populist, sensationalist argument that is built on false logic. To say that one error in a report about the rate of glacial melting or the misconduct of a couple of climate scientists disproves AGW is as ridiculous as saying that a doctor made a mistake once so homeopathy works. The logic simply does not follow and does not stand up to scrutiny.

Tragically, many media outlets, such as the BBC, feel that in order to provide balance they must give equal reporting time to many of the skeptics’ claims. As a friend of mine points out on his “Challenge the BBC’s pro-existence bias” Facebook group:

“Despite a wanton lack of evidence, the BBC (if it exists) continues to perpetuate the notion that you all exist. Expert philosophers have failed to prove this for thousands of years (if time really does pass). We get balance in lots of other debates. Despite the fact that the experts all agree that, if there is such a thing as “the climate” and “people” then the latter are causing changes to the former, the BBC, quite rightly, refuses to have a pro ‘the truth’ bias.”