Just in time
for the IPCC's
special report
on warming oceans
and melting ice:
Nature magazine
retracted
a 2018 paper
alleging the oceans
were warming faster
than everyone
previously thought.
The study
got worldwide
headlines.
Because It told
climate alarmists
exactly what
they wanted to hear:
-- Bad news warming is coming,
-- Worse than we previously thought,
-- it's our fault, etc.
An amateur British scientist
spotted many math errors.
The authors
had tried to claim
their results
were still valid,
but after
nearly a year
of investigating,
Nature magazine
retracted the paper.
Nicholas Lewis
found the errors.
He has training
in mathematics
and statistics,
and worked in
the finance sector
before retiring.
Among his hobbies
is reading papers
in the field of
climatology.
Lewis has published
a number of technical
papers in climatology
journals.
The climatologists who wrote
the study weren't statisticians.
And none of the reviewers
at Nature caught the errors,
until Lewis wrote to tell them.
When the study appeared
in October 2018, it supposedly
showed the oceans had absorbed
far more heat than indicated
in prior data sets.
If it had found
that the oceans
had absorbed
less heat
than we thought,
it would probably
have been rejected
for publication. !
Lewis showed:
-- The authors' data
actually indicated
no more heat
accumulation
in the oceans
than other studies
had estimated, and
the results were
far more uncertain
than the authors let on.
There was very little
media coverage
of the errors.