Climate change debate heats up...

with hacked e-mails from the Climate Research Unit (at the University of East Anglia) posted on-line by skeptics. The 61 MB document dump purportedly reveals the dark underbelly of how science is done by global warming proponents, including alleged falsification and manipulation of data, along with priorities being driven by political motivations and desire for career advancement.

Human beings behaving like, well, human beings. Just like a soap opera except that these shenanigans have serious implications and can influence international policy.

UPDATE: Here's a convenient summary of some of the content of the e-mails exchanged between global warming proponents. If these documents are real it's pretty dishonorable behavior, and argues in favor of greater transparency (and accountability) in science.

This has all the makings of a serious scandal.

UPDATED UPDATE: It may be a whistleblower, and not a hacker, that resulted in the release of ~172 MB of information.