Browner Shrugs Off Hot Debate on Climate Change Emails - Washington Wire - WSJ

Browner Shrugs Off Hot Debate on Climate Change Emails - Washington Wire - WSJ: "White House energy and environment czar Carol Browner tried Wednesday to shrug off the swirling controversy over purloined British emails suggesting collusion on the part of climate scientists trying to stoke up fears of global warming. She hadn’t read them, she said, and besides, only a few have come to light - second hand.

But with President Barack Obama now committing to attend the international climate change summit in Copenhagen next month, Browner couldn’t escape the debate that easily. The emails from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia are being used by climate change skeptics to castigate the very purpose of the United Nations summit.

“There has been for a very long time a very small group of people who continue to say this isn’t a real problem, that we don’t need to do anything,” Browner said at the White House. “On the other hand, we have 2,500 of the word’s foremost scientists who are in absolute agreement that this is a real problem and that we need to do something and we need to do something as soon as possible. What am I going to do, side with the couple of naysayers out there or the 2,500 scientists? I’m sticking with the 2,500 scientists.”

The controversy is not likely to go away too soon. Republicans in Congress are launching their own investigation. Conservative newspapers and Web sites are buzzing. Of particular note has been the exchange between Professor Phil Jones, the head of the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia, and Professor Michael E. Mann at Pennsylvania State University."