I hear they’re telling a joke at the International Panel on Climate Change: Knock knock. Who’s there? Peer Review. Peer Review who? Your guess is as good as mine.
But seriously, I thought it was bad enough when a single reference to a piece of speculative fiction about Himalayan glaciers made it into a “peer-reviewed” IPCC report. But it turns out to be a trend. Says the Telegraph via Hot Air, in reference to another outlandish prediction:
At first sight, the reference looks kosher enough but, following it through, one sees:
Rowell, A. and P.F. Moore, 2000: Global Review of Forest Fires. WWF/IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 66 pp. http://www.iucn.org/themes/fcp/publications /files/global_review_forest_fires.pdf.
This, then appears to be another WWF report, carried out in conjunction with the IUCN – The International Union for Conservation of Nature.
One can only imagine how many more references to activist groups are lurking in this and other IPCC literature. It’s as though the IPCC creates its works without anybody ever giving anything a critical evaluation, making Peer Review a truly Orwellian expression and IPCC our very own Minisci, producing as much science as Miniluv produced love.
Don’t laugh. The reverberations in the IPCC’s echo chamber might damage some eardrums.