By now you may of heard of a fictional paper in a fictional peer-reviewed journal that claims to prove that bacteria, not humans, are to blame for climate change. Here's a link to "Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the death of manmade global warming theory?" (Journal of Geoclimatic Studies (2007) 13:3. 223-231) in case you're wondering what it's actually all about. Already some observers are depressed that the hoax was revealed before more gullible denialists got taken in, which only a few did, such as this poor chump.
Earlier this morning, Reuters ran a story, "Hoax bacteria study tricks climate skeptics," and Reuters' enviro blogger is asking for help trying to figure out who is behind it all.
Now, I don't expect every blogger to try to verify that alleged departments actually exist, or track down the supposed authors each time they write about a paper, but really, when the abstract includes this whopper:
While a small part of the rise in emissions is attributable to industrial activity, it is greatly outweighed (by > 300 times) by rising volumes of CO2 produced by saprotrophic eubacteria living in the sediments of the continental shelves fringing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
If that doesn't blow your skepticism meters off the scale, I don't know what would.
It was a nice attempt, though. A journal name that sounds real. Authors with believable names at departments that almost exist at universities that do exist. References to bogus papers by nevertheless real authors. Better luck next time.
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When I saw this I quickly became very skeptical for a number of reasons (including the whopper quoted), but the giveaway was this paper referenced on the faux-journal's website:
Bravo!
(Later, I found http://www.desmogblog.com/spoof-website-touts-global-warming-death-were… also cited that reference as there favourite bit of the boax.)
Poor duped fellow got a nice little comment from our friendly neighbourhood Tom Harris (B. Eng., M. Eng. (thermofluids)) referencing DeSmogBlog as a "nasty little site". Heh. I like that.
That idiot at Reuters who doesn't (seem to) know about whois provoked me into submitting this comment:
What I didn't add is the suspected hoaxer has been identified on several sites. Bloody stupid reporter!
That reference in paper is also cool: Tibbold, WR and JD Rawsthorne (1998). Miocene, Pliocene and Plasticine fossil records for eukaryotic mass on the West African continental shelf. Journal of Submarine Research 18:5. 196-203.
The perfect correlations of data and sine wave cycles were hilarious and a big giveaway.
"Some observers are depressed that the hoax was revealed before more gullible denialists got taken in, which only a few did ... Better luck next time."
And some observers know that this is called "disinformation", a technique of propagandists. Why am I not surprised? True colors, and all that.
So, the people promoting global warmering are liars who have no interest in truthful scientific inquiry? How is this news?
Thorpe is actually bragging about lying to journalists. Let's see how that works out.
"more gullible denialists"
Of course, the word he was actually looking for is "skeptics". It's impossible to deny something that hasn't happened. Last time I looked out my window, the Atlantic Ocean wasn't lapping at my front door. It's beyond me why people who have a theory that predicts a certain future outcome have suddenly decided they are omniscient and don't need the predicted events to have actually happened to accuse someone of denying that they happened.
Apparently the entire alarmist community has been taken in for years by a rather silly & totally unbelievable hoax about all the Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035. No strange technical terms were used so it is difficult to see how even the most ignorant alarmist could fall for it. Seems to have been fronted by a notorious alarmist group calling themselves "the IPCC" & originated with a telephone call by a journalist on New Scientist.