Climate Denial Meme Skewered by Australian Broadcast

Multiple red flags when scientists with a track record of climate denial, who do not work in the climate field, publish a contrarian article in a little known journal. The technique is then for the climate denial media machine to “stove pipe” the bogus “study” to the top of the media food chain. In this case, Australian Broadcasting’s “Media Watch” was sharp enough to call it out.

Guardian:

The climate science denial echo-chamber has been loud and proud this week with claims a new “international study” has found no evidence of a climate emergency in records of extreme weather.

So impressed was the Australian with the work that it ran uncritical coverage on page one and page two.

Using algorithm-friendly headlines such as “Report finds ‘no evidence’ of a climate emergency”, Sky News Australia has amassed more than 400,000 views on YouTube across two segments on the story.

Yet a closer look at the publication, which appeared nine months ago in the European Physical Journal Plus – a journal not known for climate studies – reveals something very different.

The authors – three Italian physicists and an agricultural meteorologist – did little original work, but instead reviewed selected papers from other scientists. This was an article, not a study. 

Climate scientists told Temperature Check the work was selective and had misinterpreted the results of some studies, while leaving others out. 

But why is the article getting coverage now, when it appeared in the journal in January?

It was highlighted last week in online outlets known for publishing stories promoting climate denial. One UK-based climate sceptic group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, included the article in its Net Zero Watch newsletter.

The report in the Australian, from the environment editor, Graham Lloyd, described the article as a “long-term analysis of heat, drought, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and ecosystem productivity” which had found “no clear positive trend of extreme events”.

Dr Greg Holland, an emeritus senior scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, has coordinated several reviews of extreme weather.

He told Temperature Check the journal article “appears to have taken the predefined view that there has been no change – and then selected evidence to show this”.