Update: The Oreskes abstracts

 

Naomi Oreskes claims to have analysed 928 abstracts she found listed on the ISI Web of Knowledge database (1993 – 2003) using the keywords "global climate change." However, this claim is incorrect: while the ISI database includes a total of 929 documents for the period in question, it lists only 905 abstracts. It is thus impossible that Oreskes analysed 928 abstracts.

 

In my original critique, I used the same ISI database and the same key words as Oreskes but used all documents listed therein. While Oreskes did not specify the method she applied in her study, she later confirmed that she had limited her search to “articles”, while I included “all document types” in my initial assessment. This difference appears to explain the discrepancy between the “928” abstracts Oreskes claims to have analysed and the 1117 documents I found and considered, although her figures don’t add up, one way or another.

 

Some commentators have argued that these differences undermine my main criticism while they validate Oreskes' claim. However, as I have stressed repeatedly, Oreskes entire argument is flawed as the whole ISI data set includes just 13 abstracts (less than 2%) that explicitly endorse what she has called the 'consensus view.'

 

In fact, the vast majority of abstracts do not mention anthropogenic climate change.

 

I have posted all documents and abstracts listed in the ISI database under the key words “global climate change” (for the period 1993 – 2003) below, arranged by year. Check for yourself! Make sure you differentiate between implicit and explicit endorsement of the IPCC consensus (“[M]ost of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.")

 

 

 

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003