The issue focused on climate change as scientists noted that NASA satellites showed ice melting around Antarctica every summer — though researchers couldn't attribute it to climate change. Scientists quickly jumped on the scientific explanation and questioned NASA's methods. "Why don't they study climate change?" biologist Larry Mann asked at a science journalism conference in 2007.

NASA scientist Kerry Emanuel responded by arguing that NASA studies reveal climate change only through mathematical modeling. Scientists believe climate models explain climate trends using observations of weather patterns. Scientists working with NASA climate models