Increasing temperatures will take a toll on rice production in Asia: Rogue “Peer Review” Study

Rice yields 'to fall' under global warming, screamed the headlines of the BBC. The breaking story was based on a  “peer reviewed “ study that said that “the production of rice—the world's most important crop for ensuring food security and addressing poverty—will be thwarted as  temperatures increase in rice-growing areas with continued 'climate change'.

The story was broken by BBC’s environmental reporter, Richard Black on 9^th August and picked up by media all over the world. The next day, WUWT, the climate sceptic blog of Anthony Watts and the most popular science blog with over 55 million hits, picked up the story and challenged readers to write their own story. This prompted readers from all over the world to react to the study. Such was the tornado of reactions that Richard Black wrote back to Anthony Watts the very next day to inform that he would formally retract the story.

But the story still needs to be told so that it deters the climate activist brigade from WWF, Greenpeace, Christian Aid, etc from using this discredited study to misinform environmental/NGO activists and the general public using this study as a reference. The study is an insult to the toiling Asian farmers as well as activists working to promote organic agriculture.

It was Somerset Maugham who wrote “truth is in the detail”. In our new article, we illustrate how catchy catastrophic headlines are invariably misleading, if at all you read the fine print. Most people don’t and accept the headlines on face value. But as you delve deeper, you will find alarmists only stretching truth and the manipulating statistics. The climate alarmists also hide under the shield of “peer review”. This rogue study is an excellent example of the quality standards of “peer review”.

Read More: http://devconsultancygroup.blogspot.com/2010/08/increasing-temperatures-will-take-toll.html