Thank you for sharing Andrew! This appears to document how a "white paper opinion letter" was able to get published as an "authoritative peer-reviewed policy recommendation" with a bit of help from a chief editor who was earlier listed as a co-author of the same letter. It's important as the academic legitimacy thereby conferred was probably an important (if not the major) reason for the subsequent widespread publicity and press coverage that the letter received.
Unfortunately, as a "radical" (or heterodox) economist, I am all too aware of the ways in which supposedly rational and evidence-based academic debate can be distorted by institutional power, zealotry, and misrepresentation (like the Swedish Bank's economics "Nobel" prize). Best, Ron On Tue, Feb 1, 2022 at 11:17 AM Andrew Lockley <[email protected]> wrote: > Assembled by an anonymous source. Shared without comment. > > Andrew > > > March 25, 2021 > Frank Biermann publishes a blogpost concluding “Solar geoengineering is > wrong... Governments must take control. Solar geoengineering must be > stopped.” > > https://www.frankbiermann.org/post/reflections-on-the-nas-report-on-solar-geoengineering-research > > Spring 2021 > Seventeen authors, led by Biermann and including Mike Hulme, submit “Solar > Radiation Management: The Case for a Non-use Agreement” to an unknown > journal. It is rejected. > > https://twitter.com/TedParson4/status/1487879187549487109?s=20&t=QUVgPI4qGp7PAwXipHLtFA > > Spring 2021, sometime later > Sixteen authors (the same as before but without Hulme) submit “Solar > Geoengineering: The Case for a Non-use Agreement” to WIREs Climate Change, > where Hulme is the editor-in-chief. > > June 2021 > Holly Buck reviews the submission to WIREs Climate Change, recommending > rejection. The emails to her from the journal are signed by Hulme. > > https://twitter.com/hollyjeanbuck/status/1487159924291510274?s=20&t=QUVgPI4qGp7PAwXipHLtFA > > June 29, 2021 > Seventeen authors, the same as before but including Hulme, publish a > letter in Nature, “It is dangerous to normalize solar geoengineering > research,” which makes the same key points as the previous two submissions. > It concludes “We call on our governments and funding agencies to halt the > normalization of research into planetary solar-geoengineering technologies. > A global moratorium is needed.” > https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01724-2 > > January 17, 2022 > “Solar Geoengineering: The Case for a Non-use Agreement” is published in > WIREs Climate Change as a perspective, with the sixteen co-authors led by > Biermann. Hulme is listed not as an author but as the sole editor of the > article. (Other published WIREs Climate Change Perspectives list other > editors, implying that Hulme was the managing editor of the submission, not > listed simply because he is the journal’s editor-in-chief.) > https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.754 > On the same day, the sixteen co-authors launch a sign-on letter, “We call > for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering.” The > website states “The proposed non-use agreement is described in more detail > in an academic journal article in WIREs Climate Change, co-authored by 16 > scientists and initiators of this call.” > Hulme is among the roughly 45 first signatories who are listed at that > time. > https://www.solargeoeng.org/non-use-agreement/signatories/ > > January 19 to 27, 2022 > Buck publishes a few Twitter threads and opinion essays that are critical > of the article and associated open letter. > https://twitter.com/hollyjeanbuck/status/1483898133599899654 > > https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/01/could-solar-geoengineering-be-a-force-for-peace.html > https://twitter.com/hollyjeanbuck/status/1486019933439934469 > > https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/01/26/1044226/we-cant-afford-to-stop-solar-geoengineering-research/ > https://twitter.com/hollyjeanbuck/status/1486346180460171266 > > Biermann responds on his blog. > > https://www.frankbiermann.org/post/solar-geoengineering-no-publicly-funded-research-without-a-plan-for-global-governance > > January 28, 2022 > Buck says that she was a reviewer of the WIREs Climate Change submission, > recommended rejection, and did not receive any further response. She > further says that Hulme was both her point of contact for this review and > notes that he was a co-signatory of the Nature Correspondence. > https://twitter.com/hollyjeanbuck/status/1487159924291510274 > > January 29, 2022 > At 3:16 PM GMT, Biermann responds to Buck’s concerns by pointing out that > the article is a Perspective, not a research article. He mentions that “We > received 3 positive reviews & 1 critical one”, i.e. Buck. (WIREs Climate > Change Perspectives are typically reviewed by only three peers.) > https://twitter.com/FHBBiermann/status/1487444590667997187 > > At 6:15 PM GMT, another of the article’s authors (Saleem Ali) responds to > Buck’s concerns by saying that “We were very conscious of this and the > editor of the journal recused himself completely from the review process. > @FHBBiermann managed that to ensure objective review… Some emails are > auto-generated with editor's email. A response to reviewers was prepared - > sometimes journals don't share that back with reviewers.” > https://twitter.com/saleem_ali/status/1487491424761397256 > Notably, Biermann did not assert this when he responded on this issue > three hours before. The tweet with the first part of the above quotation is > deleted sometime in the next 36 hours. A screenshot is available. > https://twitter.com/geoengineering1/status/1488066192854114311/ > > January 30, 2022 > Ted Parson confirms that the Spring 2021 submission had seventeen authors, > including Mike Hulme. > https://twitter.com/TedParson4/status/1487879187549487109 > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "geoengineering" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/CAJ3C-05mYxGM%3DkpzaZ2FFLpv5zFutO6T%3DXdP5PmXiQ25axUsGQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/CAJ3C-05mYxGM%3DkpzaZ2FFLpv5zFutO6T%3DXdP5PmXiQ25axUsGQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. 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