LONDON — Hackers have broken into a server at a well-respected climate change research centre in Britain and posted hundreds of private e-mails and documents online — stoking debate over whether some scientists have overstated the case for manmade climate change.
The University of East Anglia, in eastern England, said on Saturday that hackers had stolen data at its Climatic Research Unit, a leading global research centre on climate change.
The university said police were investigating the theft of the information, but could not confirm whether all the material posted online was genuine.
More than a decade of correspondence between leading British and US scientists is included in about 1000 e-mails and 3000 documents posted on websites after a security breach last week.
Some climate change sceptics and bloggers claim the information shows scientists have overstated the case for global warming, and allege the documents contain proof that some researchers have attempted to manipulate data.
The furore over the leaked data comes weeks before the United Nations (UN) climate conference in Copenhagen, when 192 nations, and at least 65 world leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will seek to reach a binding treaty to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases worldwide.
Many officials — including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon — regard the prospects of a pact being sealed as bleak.
In one leaked e-mail, the research centre’s director, Phil Jones, writes to colleagues about graphs showing climate statistics over the past millennium. He alludes to a technique (a “trick”) used by a fellow scientist to “hide the decline” in recent global temperatures.
The use of the word “trick” by Jones has been seized on by sceptics who say his e-mail offers proof of collusion between scientists to distort evidence to support their assertion that human activity is influencing climate change.
The university said information published had been selected to undermine “the strong consensus that human activity is affecting the world’s climate in ways that are potentially dangerous”.