| As world leaders prepare to meet in Copenhagen | | | | they say studies of tree rings and statistical |
| for the December 2009 United Nations Climate | | | | analyses of decades of temperature data taken |
| Change Conference, a controversy has arisen | | | | from around the world provide scientific proof of |
| over the release of hacked information from the | | | | AGW. Most proponents of AGW considered it |
| University of East Anglia's Climate Reaearch Unit | | | | settled science beyond any further debate. |
| (CRU). The CRU is considered the foremost | | | | Most opponents of AGW accept that changes to |
| climate change research center in the world, and | | | | the world's climate are real, but they do not |
| its research has been cited as definitive proof of | | | | automatically accept the theory that global |
| human-caused global warming. However, the | | | | warming is human-caused. They contend that |
| e-mails hacked from the CRU server appear to | | | | climate has continually changed throughout the |
| show proponents of anthropogenic global warming | | | | earth's history, regardless of what humans do, |
| (AGW) manipulating data and trying to censor the | | | | and they believe that climate is too complex to |
| work of climate researchers whose work does | | | | be predicted with current technology. They |
| not support AGW. The CRU "Climategate" | | | | believe that continued research is necessary |
| controversy has reignited a debate about | | | | before AGW can be considered settled science. |
| whether global warming is a hoax or real science. | | | | Others believe global warming is a complete hoax |
| Proponents of AGW believe it is the single most | | | | and point to Climategate as proof. They believe |
| dangerous problem facing the world. They point | | | | that global warming is a trojan horse to force the |
| to visible changes to many parts of the world's | | | | implementation of radical, anti-business |
| climate, such as melting glaciers and breaking ice | | | | environmental policies. |
| shelfs, as empirical proof of AGW. Furthermore, | | | | |