Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Why people insisting "Trust the Science!" is bullshit, Reason #2:

The information you're given is too often crap.
A climate scientist has admitted exaggerating the impact of global warming on Californian wildfires to get his research published.

Patrick T Brown claims studies about climate change are rejected by scientific journals if they do not 'support certain narratives' and they favour 'distorted' research which overstates dangers.

He says his research article, which was published last week in Nature and titled 'Climate warming increases extreme daily wildfire growth risk in California', focused exclusively on climate change and intentionally ignored other key factors.

The US state has suffered extreme wildfires in recent years which have led to loss of life and property. Writing in The Free Press, Dr Brown said: 'I knew not to try to quantify key aspects other than climate change in my research because it would dilute the story that prestigious journals like Nature... want to tell.'

Explaining why he did this, Dr Brown, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said: '... it is critically important for scientists to be published in high-profile journals...


The response from Nature bothers me:
Dr Magdalena Skipper, editor in chief at Nature, which is based in London, said the journal did not have a 'preferred narrative' when it comes to science. She said it had an 'expectation' that researchers had used the most appropriate data, methods and results, adding that 'to deliberately not to do so is, at best, highly irresponsible'.
The bold is the part that bothers me, because 'most appropriate' can mean one thing to an honest researcher, and another to "I know what they want, and I'll give it to them."  Maybe I'm being too suspicious, but, unfortunately, I doubt it.

5 comments:

Mind your own business said...

Nature is being dishonest and disingenuous with their response. But it's the only one they can give and save face. But they really aren't saving face, because everyone knows they are lying through their teeth.

Rob said...

The magazine had an "expectation". The Washington state patrol said they didn't have quotas for their officers, they said they had "expectations" instead.

Sounds like the same thing here, if you don't meet the magazine's "expectations" you just don't get published...

MrLiberty said...

As a scientist, I find what was done to "science" over the past 3 years (and many decades before that with the climate BS), to be sickening. SCIENCE, real science, is never ending questions about the current state of data and understanding, with an openness of mind to evaluate each new piece of information in regards to the scientific method applied in obtaining it and the value it adds to the overall understanding of the topic at hand. All we have now is POLITICAL SCIENCE...ie - complete bullshit.

Phssthpok said...

"...an 'expectation' that researchers had used the most appropriate data, methods and results..."

Appropriate for *what* I might ask.

Anonymous said...

“it is critically important for scientists to be published in high-profile journals”
Only to you jackass, only to you.