Top scientist Patrick Brown says he deliberately OMITTED key fact in climate change piece he's just had published in prestigious journal to ensure woke editors ran it
A climate change scientist has claimed the world's leading academic journals reject papers which don't 'support certain narratives' about the issue and instead favor 'distorted' research which hypes up dangers rather than solutions.
Patrick T. Brown, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University and doctor of earth and climate sciences, said editors at Nature and Science - two of the most prestigious scientific journals - select 'climate papers that support certain preapproved narratives'.
In an article for The Free Press, Brown likened the approach to the way 'the press focus so intently on climate change as the root cause' of wildfires, including the recent devastating fires in Hawaii.
*He pointed out research that said 80 percent of wildfires are ignited by humans*.
Brown gave the example of a paper he recently authored titled 'Climate warming increases extreme daily wildfire growth risk in California'. Brown said the paper, published in Nature last week, 'focuses exclusively on how climate change has affected extreme wildfire behavior' and ignored other key factors.
Brown laid out his claims in an article titled 'I Left Out the Full Truth to Get My Climate Change Paper Published'. 'I just got published in Nature because I stuck to a narrative I knew the editors would like. That’s not the way science should work,' the article begins.
'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 and its rival, Science, want to tell,' he wrote of his recently-published work.
'This matters because it is critically important for scientists to be published in high-profile journals; in many ways, they are the gatekeepers for career success in academia. And the editors of these journals have made it abundantly clear, both by what they publish and what they reject, that they want climate papers that support certain preapproved narratives—even when those narratives come at the expense of broader knowledge for society.
'To put it bluntly, climate science has become less about understanding the complexities of the world and more about serving as a kind of Cassandra, urgently warning the public about the dangers of climate change. However understandable this instinct may be, it distorts a great deal of climate science research, misinforms the public, and most importantly, makes practical solutions more difficult to achieve.'
A spokesperson for Nature said 'all submitted manuscripts are considered independently on the basis of the quality and timeliness of their science'.
'Our editors make decisions based solely on whether research meets our criteria for publication – original scientific research (where conclusions are sufficiently supported by the available evidence), of outstanding scientific importance, which reaches a conclusion of interest to a multidisciplinary readership,' a statement said.
'Intentional omission of facts and results that are relevant to the main conclusions of a paper is not considered best practice with regards to accepted research integrity principles,' the spokesperson added.
Science was approached for comment.
Brown opened his missive with links to stories by AP, PBS NewsHour, The New York Times and Bloomberg which he said give the impression global wildfires are 'mostly the result of climate change'.
He said that 'climate change is an important factor' but 'isn't close to the only factor that deserves our sole focus'.
Much reporting of the wildfires in Maui has said climate change contributed to the disaster by helping to create conditions that caused the fires to spark and spread quickly.
The blazes, which killed at least 115 people, are believed to have been started by a downed electricity line, but observers have said rising temperatures caused extremely dry conditions on the Hawaiian island.
Brown said the media operates like scientific journals in that the focus on climate change 'fits a simple storyline that rewards the person telling it'.
Scientists whose careers depend on their work being published in major journals also 'tailor' their work to 'support the mainstream narrative', he said.
'This leads to a second unspoken rule in writing a successful climate paper,' he added. 'The authors should ignore—or at least downplay—practical actions that can counter the impact of climate change.'
He gave examples of factors which are ignored, including a 'decline in deaths from weather and climate disasters over the last century'. In the case of wildfires, Brown says 'current research indicates that these changes in forest management practices could completely negate the detrimental impacts of climate change on wildfires'.
Poor forest management has also been blamed for a record number of wildfires in Canada this year.
But 'the more practical kind of analysis is discouraged' because it 'weakens the case for greenhouse gas emissions reductions', Brown said.
Successful papers also often use 'less intuitive metrics' to measure the impacts of climate change because they 'generate the most eye-popping numbers', he said.
He went onto to claim that other papers he's written which don't match a certain narrative have been 'rejected out of hand by the editors of distinguished journals, and I had to settle for less prestigious outlets'.
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The Coming Green Energy Bailout
According to a report late last month by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (Nyserda), large offshore wind developers are asking for an average 48% price adjustment in their contracts to cover rising costs. The Alliance for Clean Energy NY is also requesting an average 64% price increase on 86 solar and wind projects.
The IRA includes federal tax credits that can offset 50% of a project’s costs. But renewable developers say their costs are increasing faster than inflation and that the projects will “not be economically viable and would be unable to proceed to construction and operation under their existing pricing,” says Nyserda.
Irony alert: One reason is that the government-forced green energy transition is driving up demand for equipment, material and labor.· Growing demand for renewable energy projects nationwide ‘has exacerbated inflation for renewable project cost components relative to broader inflation levels,’” Nyserda says, citing the Alliance for Clean Energy NY.
Green energy developers are blaming Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for increasing demand for renewable energy and its components. But the real culprits are government mandates and subsidies, which they lobbied for. Developers also blame rising interest rates for increasing project costs. But as Nyserda notes, “it does not appear reasonable for developers to have assumed that a low interest rate environment would persist throughout the period in which their projects were to be financed, given that the levels of interest rates witnessed today are indeed precedented.”
The climate lobby says power from wind and solar is cheaper than from fossil fuels, but that’s true only with generous subsidies and near-zero interest rates. Price adjustments that renewable developers want in New York would make solar and wind two- to five-times more expensive than natural gas power.
Another irony: The IRA’s prevailing wage and domestic content conditions for bonus tax credits, which are necessary to make projects viable, inflate costs. That means U.S. taxpayers will pay more for the green corporate welfare, and utility ratepayers will pay more for renewable power. The climate lobby hits you coming and going.
Nyserda adds that “requests for inflationary relief on clean energy projects” have also been submitted in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Rhode Island, among other states. Electric customers will get no such relief when their bills increase.
Meantime, the computer chip maker Micron Technology recently disclosed that its planned factories in upstate New York, which are set to receive up to $5.5 billion in state subsidies, will consume as much power as New Hampshire and Vermont combined. Where will all the power come from?
Don’t be surprised if the state eventually asks New Yorkers to turn down their thermostats or turn off the lights at some hours of the day. The green energy crunch and bailout are coming.
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Electric cars are a danger to pedestrians
As a driver, one of the best things about EVs is their swift, silent acceleration. As a pedestrian, this absence of noise could prove dangerous.
Whether you're aware of it or not, most of us rely heavily on the audio cues of conventional engines to warn us a vehicle is approaching.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a pedestrian walk out in front of an electric car I was driving, without even realising it was there.
In one instance, I tailed an elderly man who was walking down the middle of a side street for a good 20 metres before he realised I was there and almost jumped out of his skin with shock.
It's difficult to know what to do in that scenario, as beeping someone could frighten a pedestrian and result in injury while overtaking them is risky if they're not aware you're there. Your sole option is to roll down the window and shout at them... not ideal.
Making matters worse is the fact we are currently facing a mounting crisis of distraction.
Most pedestrians are wearing AirPods, texting on phones, listening to music or taking calls.
Don’t start me on drivers – many of whom use every stop sign or red traffic light to check notifications on their smartphone.
With road users reaching peak distraction, the subconscious signals we use to identify other vehicles are more crucial than ever.
This is – and has always been – particularly true for vision-impaired people who are already contending with footpaths littered with e-scooters or distracted pedestrians.
A colleague recently re-shared a 2020 Facebook post that has been shared by 828,000 people.
“Today my husband and I with our two guide dogs had another near miss with an electric car,” the post reads.
“We were crossing a side road and it came in off the main road and passed very close in front of us.
“If it’d been a petrol or diesel engine, or if it’d had a sound emitter fitted, we’d have heard it, but, apart from the sound of the tyres on the road, it was virtually silent.
“I am a confident guide dog handler but I can honestly say that silent electric vehicles scare me. I fear that it will take serious injury to a blind person, or even worse, death, before any meaningful legislation is put into place.”
It’s true that electric car manufacturers are trying to circumvent the issue of silent electric cars by adding fake acceleration noises and reversing tones to their vehicles.
Overseas, most markets have mandated all electric cars be fitted with acoustic vehicle alerting systems (AVAS) that make noise when the car is reversing or travelling at speeds at or below 20km/h.
A proposal to do the same in Australia is currently under consideration, and many models already sold here offer this functionality.
Unfortunately these systems play Jetsons-inspired bleeps and bloops – not the typical noises we associate with conventional cars.
Given electric cars are still a relatively new addition to our roads, pedestrians don’t immediately connect the dots and realise these noises belong to a vehicle. And I don’t believe they’ll recognise these sounds as “car sounds” for some time.
The better solution is to run extensive public education campaigns around electric cars and to start equipping electric cars with the ability of play fake engine noises when required.
The onus is also on EV owners to be hyper-vigilant of pedestrians while we're in this transition period.
https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/we-need-to-talk-about-this-problem-with-electric-cars
*********************************************Electric Vehicles Are Causing Issues After Hurricane Idalia
Electric vehicles are catching on fire after Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida last week.
According to local reports, at least two Tesla EVs ignited after saltwater from the storm surge damaged their batteries and other electrical components. One vehicle lit up in Pinellas Park and another car fire occurred in Palm Harbor.
“Carfax says owners need to understand the fire risk doesn’t go away after their EV dries out,” ABC Actions News told viewers.
“The salt water that is flooding can get into the battery and dry there and once it dries it creates what federal safety officials call bridges between cells and that can lead to fires and those fires can come anywhere from days to weeks later and once an EV catches fire it is incredible difficult to put it out,” said Patrick Olsen of Carfax.
After Hurricane Ian, 21 electric vehicles caught fire in the state, prompting officials to warn residents ahead of Idalia's approach.
“We saw a number of fires associated with EVs from Hurricane Ian. We know that the saltwater from storm surge can compromise these batteries, causing fires which cannot be easily suppressed,” Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said at the time.
“The best fire teams can do is keep water on the battery until the fuel burns out. If you’re evacuating and leaving an EV, or other lithium ion powered devices like scooters or golf carts in your garage, you’re creating a real fire threat for your home, your communities, and first responders," he added. "Take this threat seriously. If there’s even a small risk of your EV being impacted by storm surge, move it to higher ground before it’s too late.”
One home that managed to survive Ian ended up burning to the ground because of a saltwater-damaged EV.
EV vehicle owners are being advised to park affected cars at least 50 feet away from any structures that could catch fire.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/09/05/ev-florida-n2627949
***************************************My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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