The Damaging Impact of Roy Spencer’s Science … or, “How to Lose Credibility and Alienate Fellow Scientists”
Back in July, a climate researcher named Roy Spencer published a paper that was hyped by climate skeptics to blow a hole in warming models that would sink the Titanic. He used satellite data to make a case that far more heat was escaping into space than we currently think, and that this was prime evidence that climate change is being overblown as a risk.
He is, and was wrong. Of course that didn’t stop “major news outlets” from publishing the work like it was the Watergate papers (thanks, Fox News). However, mainstream climate scientists tore the work to shreds almost as soon as it was released (with no such fanfare, of course).
Dr. Spencer has a history of researching “against the grain”. He also has a history of being wrong.
It gets even better! That work from July that was so hyped and was supposed to sink the threat of global warming? The editor of the journal it was published in resigned on Friday, apologizing that the work was ever published under his watch. He clearly stated that it did not receive proper peer review and should be viewed as such.
It’s sad that this news comes on a holiday weekend here in the U.S., and that the news outlets so eager to publish the hype will make no such effort for the rebuttal and discrediting of that work. We saw this last month when Dr. Michael Mann was cleared of wrongdoing in the “ClimateGate” non-controversy (again).
It’s up to us to spread the word and report, I guess. Climate science is a danger, and the world deserves better effort from the media than this.
they displayed (via Climate Central)
(via itsokaytobesmart)
Source: climatecentral.org
Find me on
enVM