Search Results for: climate

Authors retract paper linking nuclear power to slow action on climate change

Do pro-nuclear energy countries act more slowly to curb the effects of climate change? That’s what a paper published in July in the journal Climate Policy claimed. But the hotly debated study was retracted last week after the authors came to understand that it included serious errors. An August 22 press release about the original … Continue reading Authors retract paper linking nuclear power to slow action on climate change

U.S. gov’t researchers withdraw climate paper after using pseudonyms

Climate scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have withdrawn a study they wrote under eyebrow-raising pseudonyms. The withdrawn paper, about predicting surface temperatures of planets, appeared in Advances in Space Research in August, 2015, and is authored by Den Volokin and Lark ReLlez. Normally, a withdrawal wouldn’t raise our eyebrows, but climate scientist Gavin Schmidt pointed out on Twitter … Continue reading U.S. gov’t researchers withdraw climate paper after using pseudonyms

Ecologists pull paper on how climate change affects moths after model mixup

Ecologists have retracted a paper published only months ago in Science Advances, after realizing that they had misinterpreted a climate model. The October paper examined the effects of climate change on populations of 155 species of British moths and butterflies. According to a press release from the authors’ institution, the University of York: Using data collected … Continue reading Ecologists pull paper on how climate change affects moths after model mixup

Second correx for controversial paper on the financial benefits of climate change

The Journal of Economic Perspectives has published a second correction for a 2009 paper that argued that some amount of global warming could lead to economic gains. The author of “The Economic Effects of Climate Change,” Richard Tol, a professor of economics at the University of Sussex, blamed earlier problems with the paper on “gremlins.” In a … Continue reading Second correx for controversial paper on the financial benefits of climate change

Weekend reads: P values banned, climate skeptic fails to disclose corporate funding, editors behaving badly

This week at Retraction Watch featured a change of heart by a journal, and a look at Nature’s addition of double-blind peer review. Here’s what was happening elsewhere:

“Gremlins” caused errors in climate change paper showing gains from global warming

The author of a controversial 2009 paper arguing that at least some amount of global warming could lead to economic gains has corrected the paper, along with a later article in a different journal. We confess to be baffled by the implications of the mix-up, although others appear to be less confused. The 2009 article, … Continue reading “Gremlins” caused errors in climate change paper showing gains from global warming

Faulty model forces rapid retraction of paper on sea ice and climate change

Last month, researchers published a paper whose conclusions suggested that looking at Arctic sea ice in the autumn offers clues to winter temperatures in Europe. The letter appeared — briefly, as this post will demonstrate — in Nature Geoscience. The letter, titled “High predictability of the winter Euro–Atlantic climate from cryospheric variability,” was written by … Continue reading Faulty model forces rapid retraction of paper on sea ice and climate change

Co-author of retracted conspiracy ideation-climate skepticism paper addresses apparent contradictions

We — and others — have been scratching our heads about the real reasons for the formal retraction on March 21 of a Frontiers in Psychology paper since the journal issued a statement on the subject on Friday that seemed to contradict the retraction notice and that certainly differed from accounts on some blogs. Today, … Continue reading Co-author of retracted conspiracy ideation-climate skepticism paper addresses apparent contradictions

Journal that retracted conspiracy ideation-climate skepticism paper says it did not “cave into threats”

Frontiers in Psychology, which last month formally retracted a controversial paper linking climate skepticism to conspiracy ideation, says it did not cave in to threats from skeptics, contrary to what a lot of news reports and commentary implied or claimed. For example, summarizing a number of those reports this morning, before Frontiers had issued its … Continue reading Journal that retracted conspiracy ideation-climate skepticism paper says it did not “cave into threats”

Controversial paper linking conspiracy ideation to climate change skepticism formally retracted

A year after being clumsily removed from the web following complaints, a controversial paper about “the possible role of conspiracist ideation in the rejection of science” is being retracted. The paper, “Recursive fury: Conspiracist ideation in the blogosphere in response to research on conspiracist ideation,” was authored by Stephan Lewandowsky, John Cook, Klaus Oberauer, and … Continue reading Controversial paper linking conspiracy ideation to climate change skepticism formally retracted