UN IPCC Lead Author Dr. Richard Tol has ‘massive criticism’ for new paper — German newspaper Der Spiegel takes apart global warming/violence paper: Accuses ‘authors of gross errors and a distorted selection of data’ — ‘Global Warming: Study on Climate Change/War Met With Fierce Criticism’
Der Spiegel 'then writes that Oslo economist Halvard Buhaug is quoted saying that Hsiang and his team 'ignored data'. Worse, Buhang says that the 'authors used data that produced the strongest results.'
Jochem Marotzke, Director of the Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg was also highly critical of Hsiang’s methodology, saying that alternative explanations were “wiped off the table” in order to give climate fluctuations maximum power as an explanation. Spiegel writes: All in all, Marotzke says that he is “skeptical when it comes to the robustness of the results'.
UN IPCC Lead Author & professor Richard Tol of University of Sussex also has expressed 'massive criticism' on the Hsiang paper, saying that the authors confused weather as climate. Spiegel writes: Most of the Hsiang-Team’s evaluated studies had to do with weather phenomena, Tol believes. ‘Forecasts on the conflict-enhancing effect of future climate was therefore strongly exaggerated’.'
Jürgen Scheffran, Professor for Climate Change and Security at the University of Hamburg and his colleagues evaluated 27 studies and found that 16 were statistically significant in showing that global warming increased the probability of violent conflict, but that 11 studies said they could actually have the opposite effect, i.e. decrease the likelihood of violent conflict. Eight of these papers were not even considered by Hsiang and his colleagues, Scheffran says.
…
Finally Sociology Professor Nico Stehr and Hans von Storch also told Spiegel that the worst error in the Hsiang study was that it ignores man’s ability to adapt to weather and climate events. Hans von Storch says “they falsely assume that man’s reaction to climatic stimulations would be unchanged“. Another expert reminds us that man will be even better equipped in the future to adapt to changes than we are today.
