Bishop Hill writes of a new paper, one so “toe curling” it is worth mentioning here to get more exposure. He writes:
This is science? This is progress?
Reports on Progress in Physics, a journal published by the Institute of Physics here in the UK, has published a paper by Raymond Orbach, an engineer at the University of Texas at Austin. It’s available in return for free registration, and I actually think it’s worth it, if only because it’s so toe-curling.
In some ways the paper’s title tells you all you need to know about it. `Our Sustainable Earth’ looks at (you guessed it) eight climate myths propagated by bad people. Like every other set of climate myths you have ever seen, each of the myths is entirely devoid of sources – Orbach has taken them from this page at his university’s website. Where they got them from is a mystery.
In fact, absence of citations is a bit of an issue. Here’s how Orbach starts to deal with claims about the medieval warm period.
Climate scientists now understand that the Medieval Warm Period was caused by an increase in solar radiation and a decrease in volcanic activity, which both promote warming. Other evidence suggests ocean circulation patterns shifted to bring warmer seawater into the North Atlantic. Those kinds of natural changes have not been detected in the past few decades.
Interesting claims – but where did they come from? We are not told. We are expected to take Prof Obach on trust. At the risk of repeating myself, one would never get away with this kind of thing on a blog.
(PS: Note to Prof Orbach – the ocean near the top of the globe is the Arctic (with a c in the middle). And it’s Santer not Senter.
IPCC uses HadCRUT. Why dear proffessor uses GISS?
“Climate scientists now understand …”
I stopped reading after that…
By the way, it looks like “the team” based climate science peer review process is working quite well! Here’s the abstract for the next paper that’s been approved for publication…
“Man made Globle Warming in the Antartic”
by Grant Money
“In this paper, the warming of the Antartic is found be do too Globle Warming by CO2 and other bad gases. Uncontrovertible evidence from estimates made by NASA GISS Modle E studies show that man is responsible for the melting of Antartica, and that we’re all going to drown from rising sea levels (see also “An Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore, 2006). In addition, it is shown that the negative impacts of Globle Warming will be intensified unless additional funding is provided for research, irregardless of the actual climate.”
Ditto Alex’s comment, Daggett. Data is often mistakenly used as a singular. Honest mistake, but still a mistake. Generally, though, I’ve found that beating up on spelling and grammatical errors–especially on the fly on message boards or comment areas– is bad karma. Almost inevitably I’ll drop a letter or add an apostrophe in the wrong place either in that post or immediately following.
Artic? – I would say it’s the modern day version of “Driving a coach and horses” through the story…
No wonder science is now extinct in the USA. From his CV you would think this guy was another Dr. Feynman.
240 papers of THIS quality??? I think I am going to be sick….
The guy make the US higher education system look like an absolute JOKE! But then it now IS a joke and corporations are no longer willing to hire US grads. Surveys of corporations consistently find that businesses are focused outside the U.S. to recruit necessary talent. A second study finds College students lack scientific literacy …by 12th-grade, we’re at the bottom of the heap, outperforming only two countries, Cyprus and South Africa. and another study finds Every Textbook Left Behind
A very sad state of affairs given our current economic mess and this guy is a contributing factor.
Mr. Raymond Lee Orbach:
Physicist “B.S. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1956 and a Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1960. Orbach began his academic career as a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University in 1960 and became an assistant professor of applied physics at Harvard University in 1961.
Orbach’s research in theoretical and experimental physics has resulted in the publication of more than 240 scientific articles, and he is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
From 1982 to 1992, he served as the Provost of the College of Letters and Science at UCLA, and from 1992 to 2002 as Chancellor of the University of California, Riverside…..” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_L._Orbach
For this type of stuff I figure Wiki is just fine. Connolley probably wrote this glowing CV himself.
It looks like we don’t need draconian approaches- (pg 3)- “Finally, two examples are presented that can potentiallyreduce CO2 emissions substantially in an economically viable manner. That is, substantial CO2 emission reduction need not reduce our standard of living, or require the deleterious consequences of a tax on carbon, a carbon cap and trade, or draconian regulations.”
Does this mean that CARB will change their approach………….. I think not.
Did anyone else notice that the good doctor has taken up academic residence in the Flawn Academic Center? Isn’t Flawn the past perfect tense of Flaw? Might explain a lot about his paper. :^()
Fools and knaves! Who among ye dares question the mighty Peer Reviewers once they have spoken, “Artic”?
For, Yea, It is Written.
@Martin says:
October 12, 2011 at 3:34 am
You make me laugh ‘How about why the global sea levels have not risen much lately, although the ice is still melting. Now where did all that water go?’
This ‘ill learn ya : http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/10/nsf-just-now-figures-out-archimedes-buoyancy-principle/ and now Martin.
With the touting of peer review being the pinnacle of street cred among AGW proponents, the back story MUST be to determine who did the peer review. One will find plenty of evidence pointing to “back scratching”. My hunch? The entire cabal of peer reviewers of papers touting AGWing is a dark cess pool of back scratchers. It will be the next —gate.
Stolen from the Bishiop Hill comments The points are to juicy not to pass on. (Hat tip to the Bishop Hill Blog & company)
It took 9 months to get through the review process and no one caught the spelling mistakes???
“…Prof Orbach who quoted Marc Airhart who quoted SkS…”
And a link to Marc Airhart: http://www.nasw.org/users/marcopolo/index.html
—————–
Remember Hansen’s “Woe is me” about scientist not being able to communicate??? Well here is the evidence to show it is an out right lie.
Marc Airhart
“About Me
I am currently a science writer for the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences….. I also freelance write about science, nature, society and the environment for print, radio and online outlets….
After over a thousand conversations with scientists, I can talk science with the best of them. I’m an accomplished interviewer who can put experts at ease and capture a compelling story. I’m also skilled at condensing technical information into a clear, concise and entertaining presentation….
I am a long-time member of the National Association of Science Writers.”
ERRRrrrrr Mr. Hansen your slip is showing.
Wow. That’s embarrassing for my alma mater. At least we don’t have to claim Dessler.
“Transient to equilibrium temperature changes take centuries to develop….”
So perhaps the American Indians were secretely using coal-fired smoke signals?
so most of this “warming” comes from Artic temperatures which are not actually measured but extrapolated from hundreds if not thousands of miles away … what could go wrong ?
To quote from the theme tune of the BBC Comedy show about a
dodgy London street-trader, “Del Boy”, called “Only Fools & Horses”
Stick a pony in me pocket,
I’ll fetch the suitcase from the van,
Cos if you want the best ’uns,
But you don’t ask questions,
Then brother, I’m your man.
’Cos where it all comes from is a mystery,
It’s like the changin’ of the seasons,
And the tides of the sea…….
&etc.
(pony = 25 UK Pounds – cash)
Del Boy, was famous for getting things of the back of a lorry,
or out of an “artic”, which he then sold on as “hookey gear”,
around the street markets of London. Has Del Boy been selling
“hookey papers” to these so called “peer reviewed journals” ?
We should be told !!!!!
Only Fools Season1 Episode1, “Big Brother” available on VEOH Video
You need the VEOH Player to see the whole show (FREE registration)
but if you don’t have that installed you can still listen to the theme tune
with the above lyrics in it, and see the first 6 minutes of the show.
Question: What’s the difference between “Del Boy” & Raymond Orbach ?
How long will it take a citizen to believe in government integrity. A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity- Baltasar Gracian. The data – datum does apply. Will the ‘association with the industrial revolution’ continue for a century long debate?
Seemingly the Rosebud Battle of summer 1876 and the follow up Greasy Grass Battle continued 130 years of debate. Really hot by some, and government is no longer a player excepting the archaeological science gathering. There seems to be no clearly defined recipe of this U.S. Cavalry ‘Last Stand’ except the known ending. Some new evidence satisfies a question, while another piece asks a new question. Is a cake only as good as the recipe.
I haven’t bothered to read the article/drivel yet. However, a quick ‘bing’ indicates that several sentences above were taken from this site: http://www.utexas.edu/know/2010/11/08/climate_myth1/
…where the author is listed as Marc Airhart. So this article is just:
1) A copy-and-paste marketing exercise
2) Normal climatology plagiarism
3) Propaganda
4) A sad reflection on the state of peer review
It is totally in line with the settled science.
“Raymond Orbach, an engineer at the University of Texas”
We should, perhaps, be grateful that he is not building bridges for a living.
Alex. Sinclair says:
October 12, 2011 at 4:13 am
Once upon a time, literate people would treat ‘data’ as a collective noun. This is appropriate because a single datum (data point) proves nothing. A data set might prove something. What I think we have here is an example of hyper-correction by someone who is illiterate about the nature of data. Sadly, this annoying usage seems to have caught on.
Now, taking sentences from the Orbach paper, it is time to do a word search at RC and Skeptical Science (the blog whose simple acronym shall not be mentioned in the same sentence with the acronym for Stainless Steel).
Bets on the probability of hits anyone? If any hits are found, will we find more from RC and Skeptical Science than from Wikipedia?
John
polkyb says:
October 12, 2011 at 3:30 am
“Does anyone actually measure the Arctic (and Antarctica for that matter) temperature with any great degree of accuracy?”
DMI, the Danish Meteorological Institute, has some 70 floating buoys or so for that.
Wasn’t volcanic activity low during the warming of the recent past warming?
Martin says:
October 12, 2011 at 3:34 am
Hey, ever wondered why the global sea temp is low at the moment?
How about why the global sea levels have not risen much lately, although the ice is still melting.
Now where did all that water go?
Martin, are you trying out for Andy Rooney’s old job?
Come on, you know it’s that Halliburton company, doing all that fracturing (or should I say fracking). They’re pumping all that water underground giving Gia a bad enema. Soon she will get us humans all back, wipe us out, and start over with the monkeys \sarc off
Anyone wanna bet this gets regurgitated through the media spin machine? If this garbage (that’s french for peer reviewed) makes it through, all we can do is laugh in self defence.