Query: Climategate CRU emails suggest conspiracy

Relevant passages:
Conspiracy theory <=SEP=> A conspiracy theory is an explanation of an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy without warrant , generally one involving an illegal or harmful act carried out by government or other powerful actors . Conspiracy theories often produce hypotheses that contradict the prevailing understanding of history or simple facts . The term is a derogatory one .   According to the political scientist Michael Barkun , conspiracy theories rely on the view that the universe is governed by design , and embody three principles : nothing happens by accident , nothing is as it seems , and everything is connected . Another common feature is that conspiracy theories evolve to incorporate whatever evidence exists against them , so that they become , as Barkun writes , a closed system that is unfalsifiable , and therefore `` a matter of faith rather than proof '' .

Climatic Research Unit email controversy <=SEP=> The Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( also known as `` Climategate '' ) began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) by an external attacker , copying thousands of emails and computer files , the Climatic Research Unit documents , to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change .   The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term `` Climategate '' to describe the controversy . Several people considered climate change `` skeptics '' argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy , that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics . The CRU rejected this , saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas .   The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009 . Because of the timing , scientists , policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference . In response to the controversy , the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth 's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades , with the AAAS concluding , `` based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ... it is a growing threat to society . ''   Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . However , the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work , for example by opening up access to their supporting data , processing methods and software , and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations .

Phil Jones (climatologist) <=SEP=> Philip Douglas Jones ( born April 22 , 1952 ) retired from his positions as the Director of the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) and as a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) at the end of 2016 . Jones was replaced as CRU director by Tim Osborn and has taken up a position as a Professorial Fellow at the UEA from January 2017 .   His research interests include instrumental climate change , palaeoclimatology , detection of climate change and the extension of riverflow records in the UK . He has also published papers on the temperature record of the past 1000 years .   He is known for maintaining a time series of the instrumental temperature record . This work was featured prominently in both the 2001 and 2007 IPCC reports , where he was a contributing author to Chapter 12 , Detection of Climate Change and Attribution of Causes , of the Third Assessment Report and a Coordinating Lead Author of Chapter 3 , Observations : Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change , of the AR4 .