Dr. Benny Peiser 04.09.2008 12:54 +Feedback
Dysfunktionaler Wissenschafts-Journalismus
A new paper has been published today in Nature by Elsner et al. which documents trends in the strongest tropical cyclones in a satellite record. The analysis overcomes some of the challenges of other studies by relying on a single dataset from 1981-2006, thus avoiding the problems of inhomogeneities when datasets are combined, and thus adds some useful knowledge to a growing literature. The paper and its reception also indicate how dysfunctional the hurricane science-media interface is, particularly this time of year. Consider the following examples of complete misinterpretations of the paper.