Climategate
11
8.5
- proper noun
- /ˈklaɪmətˌɡeɪt/
- Literature
- The problem with hanging your hat on an appeal to authority is that Climategate just eviscerated your authority.
Examples
-
Back in 2009, when they were trumpeting Climategate, Heartland said:
Blog text (1) -
Since Phil easily blew off the Climategate evidence, the same must be done here.
Blog text (1) -
And I'm going to tell you a little bit about what has caused me the most personal concern in the whole Climategate affair.
-
The plain language in the Climategate emails that everyone can read shows their lying in several ways...
Blog text (17) -
And even then, most articles minimized Climategate's importance.
Academic text (2010) -
Climategate challenges the credibility of a group of the most influential climate-change scientists on the planet.
Academic text (2010) -
Indeed, for the political, scientific, and media elites who gathered at Copenhagen, Climategate was nothing more than a sideshow.
Academic text (2010) -
The general attitude of those in attendance at Copenhagen was that Climategate was irrelevant, a mere distraction.
Academic text (2010) -
Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in CRU's unfolding Climategate scandal.
Blog text (15) -
The Climategate controversy sparked widespread debate about climate research integrity.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Climategate joins climate and the suffix -gate, taken from the 1970s Watergate scandal and now used to mean 'scandal'. So Climategate refers to the 2009 scandal about leaked emails from climate scientists.