A new study reviewing the Urban Heat Island effect has been released. The study was created by BEST: Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project. Two of the nine authors are Richard Muller from Berkeley and Judith Curry, both who have a checkered past with regards to climate science. However, the gist of this study is that the UHI Effect only adds .06C to the global increase in temperature. A very insignificant number. The study is being shared with the media but has not been peer reviewed yet.

Anthony Watts has been a champion of the meme positing that the UHI Effect has added too much to the temp record, thereby it’s unreliable and shows too much warming. The BEST study is looking at exactly what Watts has been postulating. I was interested in his response. I’m not surprised he takes issue with this new study.

Today is a day I got not one thing done for myself due to the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature release sucking all the oxygen out of the climate debate with their pre-peer review release shenanigans.

No surprise there. Watts has a post complaining about ‘peer review by press’ with regards to the BEST study being released. It’s essentially another meme being formed stating that scientists are playing the PR game and not being scientific, which is laughably hypocritical. Watts complains that he was given the study to review but was asked to keep in confidential, yet the study was released to the press a week later.

….who despite such concerns went ahead with BEST’s plan for a media blitz anyway.

Watts is a master of ‘peer review by PR’ and would have quickly posted about this study on his blog. Now he’s pissed he didn’t get the jump and is whining about some ‘media blitz.’

My Hypocrisy Meter is smoking and about to blow up.

In his complaint he notes how he found out that the BEST study was released: media was asking for his response.

Readers may recall this post last week where I complained about being put in a uncomfortable quandary by an author of a new paper. Despite that, I chose to honor the confidentiality request of the author Dr. Richard Muller, even though I knew that behind the scenes, they were planning a media blitz to MSM outlets. In the past few days I have been contacted by James Astill of the Economist, Ian Sample of the Guardian, and Leslie Kaufman of the New York Times. They have all contacted me regarding the release of papers from BEST today.

The irony is he now has a little taste of what it’s like to be a climate scientist played by the denialist agitprop machine. Except, of course, he’s not a climate scientist. And he hasn’t been sued or been harassed by FOIA fishing expeditions.