As compiled by the BBC.

Evidence that the Earth’s temperature is getting warmer is unclear.
If the average temperature was rising, it has now stopped.
The Earth has been warmer in the recent past.
Computer models are not reliable.
The atmosphere is not behaving as models would predict.
Climate is mainly influenced by the sun.
A carbon dioxide rise has always come after a temperature increase not before.
Long-term data on hurricanes and arctic ice is too poor to assess trends.
Water vapour is the major greenhouse gas; CO2 is relatively unimportant.
Problems such as HIV/AIDS and poverty are more pressing than climate change.

I just received this in my inbox. Sigh…

Subject: Your Blog About Klein, Gupta, et al

Message: A little fact checking shows that the Journal of Geoclimatic Studies is a peer reviewed journal issued by the Institute of Geoclimatic Studies, Climatological Department, Okinawa University, Okinawa OK-184NJ, Japan. So much for the “it’s a fake article in a fake journal”

There is a Okinawa University. However, there is not a “Climatological Department” [sic] at that university. The so-called editors of this “peer reviewed” [sic] journal do not exist at Okinawa University. The “journal” is not peer reviewed. The “journal” does not exist except for the website. There is only one “paper” in said “journal”.

I was hoping this bateria thing would have disappeared by today. But it seems that a few loonies want to cling to anything they can.

Apparently there’s a hubbub about a new paper that totally refutes the theory of “manmade [sic] global warming”.

The title alone should give away that this isn’t published in a real journal. Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the death of manmade global warming theory? ‘Manmade’? Come on. Firstly, that’s sexist. Women also contribute to global warming. Secondly, it’s poor grammar. Since my grammar on this blog is horrible, I shouldn’t be judging. But I am anyway. Thirdly, why use a word like manmade when you can use a longer word like anthropogenic or anthropic? The answer is because the target audience doesn’t understand long words. And is apparently not bright enough to open a dictionary… or in this case, copy and paste it into Google (or any other search engine would work too).

Leaving that aside, I was extraordinarily interested to learn about the “death of manmade global warming”, so I thought I’d hop over to the Department of Climatology. I walked all about campus, but I couldn’t find it. [No actual walking was done; no pseudo-anonymous bloggers were injured during said non-walking event.] Perhaps the editors of this prestigious journal made a boo-boo and meant the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. Great! There’s just a small problem; there is no one named Daniel A. Klein or Mandeep J. Gupta in the department. There is no one named anything like that in the department. In fact, as far as I can tell, there is no one by those names on the entire campus! Crap. I guess I won’t be having that discussion after all.

Needless to say, it’s a fake article in a fake journal written by fake authors using fake data and hosted on a fake website. I don’t know what qualifies as a fake website, but this surely must satisfy them. It’s fake.

Desmog Blog found this before me. But to my credit, it hasn’t showed up in my feed reader yet.

Many thanks to a recent comment by Steve Bloom for pointing to the October 9th EOS front page article. This quote sums up the article nicely:

This trend, however, is probably much more uncertain than acknowledged by Christy et al. [2006], since the removal of one of their 137 data segments completely eliminates the apparent trend [Bonfils et al., 2007b].

Ouch.

References:
Bonfils, C., P. Duffy, and D. Lobell (2007b), Comments on “Methodology and results of calculating central California surface temperature trends: Evidence of human-induced climate change?” by J. R. Christy et al., J. Clim., 20, 4486-4489.

Christy, J. R., W. B. Norris, K. Redmond, and K. P. Gallo (2006), Methodology and results of calculating central California surface temperature trends: Evidence of human-induced climate change?, J. Clim., 19, 548-563.