Photo Gallery The Climate War
A colorful oracle: A visitor watches an animation demonstrating oceanic acidity levels at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.
The Enigmatic Sun: With the "STEREO" (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) telescope, climate researchers are able to observe the sun, whose influence on climatic variations is still a controversial topic.
There are still significant gaps in climate research. In particular, the simulation of clouds is nearly impossible.
Researchers also dispute the reliability of temperature measurements. Here, the moon rises behind a weather station in Switzerland.
Paleoclimatologist Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University is at the center of the climate change debate. Mann and his colleagues were the first to show that average temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were steady for about 850 years and then suddenly spiked in the 19th century -- the so-called "hockey stick" curve.
Mineralogist Stephen McIntyre (pictured) and economist Ross McKitrick argued in a 2003 paper that Mann's research contained systemic errors. Mann rejected the paper, which he saw as part of a "highly orchestrated, heavily funded corporate attack campaign."
More and more, Mann and his colleagues refused to hand out their data to "the enemy," or skeptical researchers. Here, McKitrick, who detected Mann's mathematical errors.
Red colors equals a warmer future: Climate prognoses forecast a noticeable warming of the planet if greenhouse-gas emissions are not curtailed.
Ministers of the Maldives government met on the sea bed to draw attention to the global warming and its effect on sea levels. The island nation and tourist paradise in the Indian Ocean is threatened by rising sea levels.
Several climate researchers are calling for the resignation of Rajendra Pachauri, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, because he took too long to acknowledge that the panel published inaccurate research on climate change.
Many low-lying islands could be swallowed up by rising sea levels. Here, a small Indonesian island in Riau province.
The German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ) in Hamburg uses supercomputers to predict future climates.
Many climate researchers have cooperated with environmental groups and other industry lobbyists. Here, protesters in August impersonate Chancellor Angela Merkel. "Germany Searches for a Climate Chancellor," reads the sign held high in the back, a play on the German television version of "American Idol."
Melting glaciers are changing the landscape of the arctic and contributing to rising sea levels, among other worries. Picture here is the Chydenius glacier on the Arctic Ocean.
