Benny Peiser is a social anthropologist and climate change skeptic. Peiser frequently cites a study performed by Dennis Bray which and claims “a quarter of respondents still question whether human activity is responsible for the most recent climatic changes.”1,2,3 However, further analysis shows that was an anonymous online survey that had no way of confirming who or even what was filling out the questions.1, 2 The real consensus is quoted and sourced here. In 2004 Naomi Oreskes published a study claiming that not a single peer-review journal containing the words "global climate change" from 1993 to 2003 disagreed with the consensus. Benny Peiser retaliated by performing a study of his own. A study which the peer review journals Science and Nature refused to publish. He had read 1,247 peer-review journals/abstracts on climate change and claimed that there were 34 that refuted climate change. After being rejected, Peiser complained to the press. He said there was a conspiracy against his work because he was a global warming skeptic. When Tim Lambert and William M. Connolley reviewed the 34 abstracts Peiser provided, they found the following results:
|
Abstract
# |
Analysis |
|
8, 9, 14, 34 |
These papers assumed existence of climate change as a given. This directly contradicts Peiser’s conclusions. |
|
2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21,
22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 |
These journals do not refute climate change |
|
15, 20 |
Probably does not refute climate change, borderline |
|
27 |
Not a peer reviewed journal |
|
1, 6 |
Very old paper, very old data |
|
7 |
Possible doubting, Minor journal |
|
10 |
Personal view, not science |
A quick look at Connolley's results
shows that
Peiser's study is seriouly flawed. Only one
of the papers disagreed with the consensus and it wasn't even peer
reviewed. Therefore Benny found ZERO peer-reviewed
papers that
disagreed with the scientific concensus. Several of the
abstracts (#34)
dealt with carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration has
only
one purpose which is to fight global warming. So how Benny
Peiser
came to the conclusion that a paper on carbon sequestration refutes
global warming is a bit of a mystery. Benny Peiser's work
has
been
refuted on numerous other sites as well.1,
William
Connolley and many others debunked Peiser's study on May
6th, 2005 and Peiser admitted his mistakes on March
19, 2006.
It took year before Peiser admitted that he was wrong about some of them:
"I accept that it was a mistake to include the abstract you mentioned (and some other rather ambiguous ones) in my critique of the Oreskes essay."
Now he has admitted to Media Watch that the only one that belonged on his list was the non-peer reviewed AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) journal. The black text is Media Watch and the blue text is Benny Peiser:
So how many of the 34 articles does Benny Peiser stand
by? How many really "reject or doubt" the scientific
consensus for man-made global warming? Well when we first contacted him two weeks ago he told
us...
And when we pressed him to provide the names of the articles, he eventually conceded - there was only one. (Ad Hoc Committee on Global Climate Issues: Annual report, by Gerhard LC and Hanson BM, AAPG Bulletin 84 (4): 466-471 Apr 2000) |
Since he thinks only one paper belongs on the list we can do a little math. 33 wrong / 34 total = 0.9705 So Benny admits he was 97% wrong. The only paper he continues to stand by wasn't even peer reviewed. Considering that was a requirement for Oreskes's study, maybe he should admit the last paper doesn't belong either.