Cook et al's highly influential consensus study (2013 Environ. Res. Lett.8 024024) finds different results than previous studies in the consensus literature. It omits tests for systematic differences between raters. Many abstracts are unaccounted for. The paper does not discuss the procedures used to ensure independence between the raters, to ensure that raters did not use additional information, and to ensure that later ratings were not influenced by earlier results. Clarifying these issues would further strengthen the paper, and establish it as our best estimate of the consensus.
Department of Economics, University of Sussex, BN1 9SL, Falmer, UK;Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;CESifo, Munich, Germany
Recommended Citation:
Richard S J Tol. Comment on 'Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature'[J]. Environmental Research Letters,2016-01-01,11(4)