date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 11:17:33 -0500 from: "Michael E. Mann" subject: Re: question about a paper in GRL (fwd) to: Chris Reason Thanks Chris, Sorry about the email problem. My spam-blocker occasionally throws the baby out w/ the bath water, as in this case. I guess you already saw Steve Mackwell's response. Needless to say, it is a bit disconcerting. We could of course write a reply, but then these bozos get the last word anyway--hardly worth it for us. A number of my colleagues are also very concerned at the recent space of truly awful 'contrarian' climate papers (the various Douglass papers, w/ Singer and Michaels, the Soon et al paper, etc.) that have been published recently. I would assume you had little if anything to do w/ any of these, and so I'm sorry I've even brought you into the fray on this. But I guess it doesn't hurt to have brought this to your attention. Some colleagues have specifically mentioned some negative experiences w/ James Saiers, who seems to be implicated in this latest paper, and perhaps most of the ones discussed above. Why a hydrologist has been entrusted to handle climate papers (especially, controversial ones) is somewhat beyond me. It seems that something may be amiss higher up. Mackwell certainly doesn't appear to be concerned, despite the fact that many in the climate research community are not happy w/ what is going on at GRL right now. Anyway, sorry again for entraining you into this. I realize you probably weren't even aware of this at all. I appreciate your candid reply, and would of course appreciate any relevant additional information that comes your way which you feel comfortable in disclosing. I will certainly keep you posted of any relevant updates at my end. Thanks again, Mike At 10:30 AM 1/21/2005, you wrote: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 17:20:50 +0200 (SAST) From: Chris Reason To: Michael E. Mann Subject: Re: question about a paper in GRL Dear Mike I had a look on GEMS but it appears that it has already been accepted by one of the editors. I was not the editor on this paper and obviously cannot interfere with another editor's decision or change it. Any issue with it would therefore need to be addressed by Steve Mackwell as you suggest. I would suggest you phone him on 281-486-2128 to discuss your reservations, or alternatively, AGU HQ in Washington (amacinnes@agu.org) - his asst Anne Marie MacInnes would know his wherabouts. I'm not sure what AGU policy is regarding issues of this type. It would certainly seem like you should contact him as a matter of urgency. If it has already gone into production, then I suppose the alternative would be to submit a Comment to GRL which points out the flaws. Sorry I can't be of more help. I certainly understand your frustrations and concerns. Best Wishes Chris On Tue, 18 Jan 2005, Michael E. Mann wrote: > Dear Chris, > > A number of colleagues of mind have informed me of an inflammatory and > deeply flawed paper that has apparently been accepted in GRL by two > individuals McIntyre and McKitrick. The paper is full of false claims > that were already rejected by Nature in a comment that these authors had > submitted on the previous work of my co-authors and me. > > The authors have apparently been distributing this paper to various > individuals, including colleagues of mine. Obviously, neither my > co-authors nor I were granted any opportunity to respond to the unfounded > criticisms in this paper. But it is furthermore my understanding that > none of my scientific colleagues in this research area (that is > high-resolution paleoclimate reconstruction--this would include > researchers at CRU, Univ. of Arizona, Lamont Doherty, Duke University, > University of Bern) had any role in the review of this paper. This is > especially disturbing. > > I am very concerned that this paper has been accepted by GRL. It is one > in a number of deeply flawed papers that have been accepted in the > journal recently (several papers by Douglass et al, one by Soon et al, > and now this one), and a number of my other colleagues, such as Tom > Wigley, are very concerned about this as well. > > I have tried to contact the chief editor Stephen Mackwell to discuss > this matter, but have been unable to reach him. I was hoping you might be > able to provide some help or information on this matter. > > Thanks in advance for getting back to me as soon as possible. > > Best regards, > > Mike Mann > > ______________________________________________________________ > Professor Michael E. Mann > Department of Environmental Sciences, Clark Hall > University of Virginia > Charlottesville, VA 22903 > _______________________________________________________________________ > e-mail: mann@virginia.edu Phone: (434) 924-7770 FAX: (434) 982-2137 > [1]http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/people/mann.shtml > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assoc. Prof Chris Reason Oceanography Dept. University of Cape Town Private Bag Rondebosch 7701 South Africa cjr@egs.uct.ac.za tel 27-21-650-5311 fax 27-21-650-5773 / 3979 ______________________________________________________________ Professor Michael E. Mann Department of Environmental Sciences, Clark Hall University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22903 _______________________________________________________________________ e-mail: mann@virginia.edu Phone: (434) 924-7770 FAX: (434) 982-2137 [2]http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/people/mann.shtml