On Peer Review, Polar Bears, and Ad Hominem
December 8, 2017
By H. Sterling Burnett
Climate Change Weekly #270
A recent paper in Bioscience concerning the effects of climate change on polar bears—or more accurately, concerning why more people don’t fear human greenhouse gas emissions are having a deadly impact on polar bears—exposes how weak the peer review system for science journals is today with regards to alarming climate claims. Noted climate scientist Judith Curry tweeted, “This is absolutely the stupidest paper I have ever seen published.†I couldn’t agree more. It never should have been published in a legitimate peer-reviewed journal.
Science is supposed to proceed from theory or hypothesis to testing. Real-world data either disconfirm or lend credence to the theory. This paper skips both steps. It presents no theory, but rather vaguely suggests humans are causing dangerous climate change and that said change will likely harm polar bears, Then it presents no evidence to back either claim.
https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/on-peer-review-polar-bears-and-ad-hominem
