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Scientists Acknowledge Key Errors in Study of How Fast the Oceans Are Warming (washingtonpost.com)

A major study claimed the oceans were warming much faster than previously thought. But researchers now say they can't necessarily make that claim. From a report: Two weeks after the high-profile study was published in the journal Nature, its authors have submitted corrections to the publication. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, home to several of the researchers involved, also noted the problems in the scientists' work and corrected a news release on its website, which previously had asserted that the study detailed how the Earth's oceans "have absorbed 60 percent more heat than previously thought."

"Unfortunately, we made mistakes here," said Ralph Keeling, a climate scientist at Scripps, who was a co-author of the study. "I think the main lesson is that you work as fast as you can to fix mistakes when you find them." The central problem, according to Keeling, came in how the researchers dealt with the uncertainty in their measurements. As a result, the findings suffer from too much doubt to definitively support the paper's conclusion about how much heat the oceans have absorbed over time.

The central conclusion of the study -- that oceans are retaining ever more energy as more heat is being trapped within Earth's climate system each year -- is in line with other studies that have drawn similar conclusions. And it hasn't changed much despite the errors. But Keeling said the authors' miscalculations mean there is a much larger margin of error in the findings, which means researchers can weigh in with less certainty than they thought.

3 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. Too damn funny by Crashmarik · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's one hell of a lot of slashtards that are wishing comments could be deleted today.

    1. Re:Too damn funny by DigressivePoser · · Score: 3, Funny

      There's one hell of a lot of slashtards that are wishing comments could be deleted today.

      Heh! Here's my favorite comment from PopeRatzo discussing the original study:

      We were warned. Scientists told us this shit would happen, but fucking sheeple just had to believe what Republicans told them because they were white and by denying climate change, they could own the libs.

      So now, fuck you. I'm living in a place that's going to be one of the last places to suffer with climate change and the rest of you over in Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, Houston, Texas and all the shitholes that are going to suffer the most can eat shit and die. Your lives were forfeit anyway when you started voting Republican and eating oxycontin and KFC gravy bowls like your flabby disgrace of a president. We will all be better off when you're floating face down in the Gulf of Mexico.

      Have a blessed day!

      So much emotional capital wasted that could've been spent harassing his ex-wife.

  2. Re:It's Called Science by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Funny

    The error was _not_ found by a 'climate scientist'.

    From TFA.

    However, not long after publication, an independent Britain-based researcher named Nicholas Lewis published a lengthy blog post saying he had found a “major problem” with the research.

    Lewis added that he tends “to read a large number of papers, and, having a mathematics as well as a physics background, I tend to look at them quite carefully, and see if they make sense. And where they don’t make sense — with this one, it’s fairly obvious it didn’t make sense — I look into them more deeply.”

    Alarmists have repeatedly told me that non-climate scientist should shut the fuck up. Kudos to the journal and those of the authors that accept the mistake, but don't pretend that they found it themselves or that they are all accepting that they made an error.

    Yes, I RTFA....Hangs head in shame.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'