Media outlets claimed the findings of Zunli Lu support arguments that human-induced global warming is a myth. But Lu claims his findings actually do not question the established warming trends, and now he is trying to set the record straight.

The climate research conducted by Lu, a Syracuse University assistant professor of earth sciences, was recently published online in the journal ‘Earth and Planetary Science Letters,’ but was later misrepresented when it appeared in several media outlets, including the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail.

Lu’s research, ‘an ikaite record of late Holocene climate at the Antarctic Peninsula,’ solely focused on one site at the Antarctic Peninsula as a proxy for establishing past climate patterns, according to a March 28 statement from Lu on the College of Arts and Sciences’ news website.

Several of the published articles on Lu’s findings claim his study finds that Earth heated during medieval times without the contribution of human carbon dioxide emissions, according to the statement. But, Lu said, it is clearly stated in his research that he only studied one site in the Antarctic Peninsula, and therefore, the results should not be used to understand worldwide conditions.

‘The results should not be extrapolated to make assumptions about climate conditions across the entire globe,’ Lu said in the statement. ‘Other statements, such as the study ‘throws doubt on orthodoxies around global warming,’ completely misrepresent our conclusions. Our study does not question the well-established anthropogenic warming trend.’

Lu’s research was distributed to media outlets, including EurekAlert, an online news service that posts hundreds of research stories by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Lu’s research was picked up by online trade media outlets, bloggers and two British tabloids.

From his paper, multiple media outlets concluded that Lu’s research proved carbon dioxide is not the cause of current global warming trends. These misinterpretations spread to the United States in an online editorial published by the Washington Times, said Judy Holmes, communications manager for the College of Arts and Sciences, in an email. Holmes said the misinterpretation was costly for Lu.

‘The media blitz cost Professor Lu valuable time over the course of several days because he was inundated by emails from colleagues, other scientists, as well as non-scientists from across the globe who were trying to establish if the news stories they read were accurate,’ Holmes said.

She said this was stressful for Lu, as he was concerned with maintaining the integrity of his research after the media conducted inaccurate reporting. Holmes received a number of emails and phone calls as well, which she said is highly unusual.

While studying ikaite crystals from sediment cores drilled off the coast of Antarctica, Lu and his researchers discovered that the water that holds the crystal structure of ikaite together traps information about temperatures present when the crystals formed. Because of this, Lu and his researchers were the first to establish that ikaite can be a reliable proxy for studying past climate conditions, according to a March 21 College of Arts and Sciences news article.

Lu conducted his research while he was a post-doctoral researcher at Oxford University. The data interpretation was done when he returned to SU, according to the article.

Said Holmes: ‘It is difficult for the lay public to make informed decisions about contentious issues – particularly those concerning climate change, conservation and preservation – which require objective, scientific research and discovery when news reporters fail in their duty to write accurately about the science behind the issues.’

kfluttma@syr.edu 

Published on April 10, 2012 at 12:00 pm