'Climategate' scientists get death threats: report

LONDON, UK: Two of the scientists involved in 'Climategate' – the e-mail hacking incident at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, UK – have been emailed death threats since the contents of their private e-mails were leaked to the world, said a Guardian report.

However, the report said no further information can be revealed about these particular threats at present because they are currently under investigation with the FBI in the United States.

Many other CRU scientists and their colleagues have received torrents of abusive and threatening e-mails since the leaks first began in mid-November 2009.

Tom Wigley, previous Director of CRU and now at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, US, said he has been horrified by the e-mails he and other colleagues have received, according to Guardian.

Meanwhile, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said a 20 per cent cut in greenhouse gases by rich nations would be a "pretty good" result for a U.N. climate summit even though it falls short of developing nations' hopes.

A U.S. reduction offer of 3 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 made it hard to reach more ambitious cuts by 2020 for industrialized nations as a group, he added.

"If we can get something like that it would be a pretty good outcome," Pachauri told Reuters, when asked if he would be satisfied with cuts of 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 at a summit at the end of the December 7-18 conference.

Pachauri has often urged far tougher action by the rich, especially to help developing nations threatened by rising sea levels.

U.S. President Barack Obama aims to come to Copenhagen for a closing summit. He has said he will offer a U.S. cut of 3 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, or a reduction of 17 per cent from 2005 levels after sharp rises in recent years.

The United States is the only developed nation with no caps on emissions under the existing Kyoto Protocol. "I would hope that some of the other countries will fill the gap by doing a little more and perhaps get the Americans to move further," Pachauri said.

(With inputs from Reuters)