James Powell: Is There a Case Against Human Caused Global Warming in the Peer-Reviewed Literature?

On Skeptical Science: Getting Skeptical About Global Warming Skepticism, James Powell, author of The Inquisition of Climate Science, is beginning a study of the peer-reviewed articles that “take a negative or explicitly doubtful position on human-caused global warming”.

Part of Powell’s project includes a database of the articles and their abstracts. In describing the aims of the project, Powell writes:

Climate skeptics give the impression that there is a substantial case against human-caused global warming. But is it true? One way to shed light on the question is to review the peer-reviewed literature…

Instead of starting with the literature, I began with a list of over 100 skeptics who have or give the impression they have scientific expertise. For example, Christopher Monckton, despite his lack of scientific credentials, gives talks in which he takes on the guise of a scientist. Anthony Watts, a former TV meteorologist, blogs about complicated scientific matters. George Will, in contrast, while acting as though he knows more than scientists, does not pretend to be one. I include Monckton and Watts, but not Will….

The point of this exercise is not just the number of papers, but what they say and whether they make a case against human-caused global warming. In subsequent posts, I will offer what I regard as the “takeaways” from these papers.