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Editor resigns over sloppy anti climate change publication

 Journal editor resigns over ‘problematic’ climate paper, BBC News, Richard Black, 2 September 2011 The editor of a science journal has resigned after admitting that a recent paper casting doubt on man-made climate change should not have been published.

 The paper, by US scientists Roy Spencer and William Braswell, claimed that computer models of climate inflated projections of temperature increase.

It was seized on by “sceptic” bloggers, but attacked by mainstream scientists.

Wolfgang Wagner, editor of Remote Sensing journal, says he agrees with their criticisms and is stepping down…..

The paper became a cause celebre in “sceptical” circles through its claim that mainstream climate models inflated temperature projections through misunderstanding the role of clouds in the climate system and the rate at which the Earth radiated heat into space.

This meant, it said, that projections of temperature rise made in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports were too high.

The paper, published in July, was swiftly attacked by scientists in the mainstream of climate research.

They also commented on the fact that the paper was not published in a journal that routinely deals with climate change. Remote Sensing’s core topic is methods for monitoring aspects of the Earth from space.

Publishing in “off-topic” journals is generally frowned on in scientific circles, partly because editors may lack the specialist knowledge and contacts needed to run a thorough peer review process…….

“the problem I see with the paper… is not that it declared a minority view (which was later unfortunately much exaggerated by the public media) but that it essentially ignored the scientific arguments of its opponents. – Dr Wagner, a professor of remote sensing at Vienna University of Technology
BBC News – Journal editor resigns over ‘problematic’ climate paper

September 5, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, media