John Cook, creator of the pathologically credulous Skeptical Science
website sent invitation letters to about 50 climate bloggers, including myself
(Alec Rawls, author of the Error Theory blog and occasional co-blogger at the
genuinely skeptical Watts Up With That climate blog), asking us to help him
solicit participants for a crowd-sourced survey of the peer reviewed climate
literature, designed to assess how consistently the literature conforms to the
"consensus" view that "most global warming is being caused by human activity."
All of use were sent survey links to post on our blogs. The invitation failed to
mention that the links include identifier tags, so that Cook will know which
survey responses were referred by which blogs, an odd omission, and given Cook's
history of shenanigans, there is reason to be concerned that something
underhanded may be planned. So with a clear CAVEAT EMPTOR, here is the
skeptic-tagged link that Cook sent to me, if anyone wants to submit a skeptic
tagged survey response.
Surveys are said to include a randomly generated selection of 10 abstracts to
rate according to a set of rating rules that Cook describes. Pasted below is one
of these random surveys, downloaded fom the link above, including survey
description and instructions. I have disabled the "submit" button. If you want
to fill out a survey, use the link above.
Changes In Tropical Cyclone Number, Duration, And Intensity In A Warming Environment We examined the number of tropical cyclones and cyclone days as well as tropical cyclone intensity over the past 35 years, in an environment of increasing sea surface temperature. A large increase was seen in the number and proportion of hurricanes reaching categories 4 and 5. The largest increase occurred in the North Pacific, Indian, and Southwest Pacific Oceans, and the smallest percentage increase occurred in the North Atlantic Ocean. These increases have taken place while the number of cyclones and cyclone days has decreased in all basins except the North Atlantic during the past decade.
Survey of Peer-Reviewed Scientific Research
Below are listed the titles and abstracts (summary) of 10 randomly selected scientific papers; mouseover each title to read the abstract (summary). Please read each title and abstract then select from the drop down to categorize each abstract. Your rating should be based on the abstract text. Your submission will be anonymous. The drop down indicates indicates the level of endorsement within the abstract for the proposition that human activity (i.e., anthropogenic greenhouse gases) is causing global warming (e.g., the increase in temperature).
Note: AGW is Anthropogenic Global Warming or human-caused global warming.
Options are:
Explicit Endorsement with Quantification: abstract explicitly states that humans are causing more than half of global warming.
Explicit Endorsement without Quantification: abstract explicitly states humans are causing global warming or refers to anthropogenic global warming/climate change as a given fact.
Implicit Endorsement: abstract implies humans are causing global warming. E.g., research assumes greenhouse gases cause warming without explicitly stating humans are the cause.
Neutral: abstract doesn't address or mention issue of what's causing global warming.
Implicit Rejection: abstract implies humans have had a minimal impact on global warming without saying so explicitly. E.g., proposing a natural mechanism is the main cause of global warming.
Explicit Rejection without Quantification: abstract explicitly minimizes or rejects that humans are causing global warming.
Explicit Rejection with Quantification: abstract explicitly states that humans are causing less than half of global warming.
Survey Form (mouseover the paper title to display the abstract
[not working on this sample page])
This study adheres to the Guidelines of the ethical review process of The University of Queensland. Whilst you are free to discuss your participation in this study with project staff (contactable on +61 7 3365 3553 or j.cook3@uq.edu.au), if you would like to speak to an officer of the University not involved in the study, you may contact the Ethics Officer on +61 7 3365 3924 or humanethics@research.uq.edu.au.
If you have any questions about the survey or encounter any technical problems, you can contact John Cook at j.cook3@uq.edu.au
