Climate researcher admits to leaving out key details in climate change report

A climate scientist has admitted to hiding details of a study in order to further his career.

On Aug. 30, Johns Hopkins University lecturer Patrick T. Brown tweeted a link to his article on climate change. “We have a paper out today in @Nature on the role that human-caused climate change is playing in changes in extreme wildfire behavior, at the daily timescale, in California,” he said.

We have a paper out today in @Nature on the role that human-caused climate change is playing in changes in extreme wildfire behavior, at the daily timescale, in California.https://t.co/C83frxJMUV pic.twitter.com/vzfc7yc312

— Patrick T. Brown (@PatrickTBrown31) August 30, 2023

Brown claimed that his research was the first of its kind as it discusses the characteristics of, rather than the causes of, wildfires. In addition, it uses high-resolution data to illustrate its point.

[Harvard students demand environmental law prof cut ties with oil giant ConocoPhillips]

“We use a ‘storyline approach’ where the day-to-day weather conditions associated with historical fires are placed in differing background climatological temperatures and aridity conditions,” Brown explained.

“We used machine learning to quantify the relationship between temperature and wildfire behavior empirically directly from the data itself so that there were not any built-in assumptions about relationships between temperature/aridity and fire behavior,” he added.

We used machine learning to quantify the relationship between temperature and wildfire behavior empirically directly from the data itself so that there were not any built-in assumptions about relationships between temperature/aridity and fire behavior. pic.twitter.com/dDaekxdkqY

— Patrick T. Brown (@PatrickTBrown31) August 30, 2023

The results of the study suggest that climate change has a significant effect on fire behavior. “In some cases, warming’s impact on fire behavior was nonexistent (or even negative),” Brown said, “and in others it had a huge impact – e.g., increasing the risk of extreme growth in daily burned area by more than a factor of 5.”

In some cases, warming’s impact on fire behavior was nonexistent (or even negative), and in others it had a huge impact – e.g., increasing the risk of extreme growth in daily burned area by more than a factor of 5.

— Patrick T. Brown (@PatrickTBrown31) August 30, 2023

Less than a week later, however, Brown confessed that he had left out key details. 

“Last week, I described our paper on climate change and wildfires,” Brown tweeted on Sept. 5. “I am very proud of this research overall. But I want to talk about how molding research presentations for high-profile journals can reduce its usefulness & actually mislead the public.”

“I mentioned that this research looked at the effect of warming in isolation but that warming is just one of many important influences on wildfires with others being changes in human ignition patterns and changes in vegetation/fuels,” he continued. 

I mentioned that this research looked at the effect of warming in isolation but that warming is just one of many important influences on wildfires with others being changes in human ignition patterns and changes in vegetation/fuels.

— Patrick T. Brown (@PatrickTBrown31) September 5, 2023

“So why didn’t I include these obviously relevant factors in my research from the outset? Why did I focus exclusively on the impact of climate change? Well, I wanted the [research] to get as widely disseminated as possible, and thus I wanted it to be published in a high-impact journal,” Brown admitted.

[RELATED: ANALYSIS: ‘OK, doomer:’ The leftist ideas fueling the youth mental health crisis]

“To put it bluntly, I sacrificed value added for society in order to mold the presentation of the research to be compatible with the preferred narratives of the editors and reviewers of high-profile journals,” he acknowledged.

To put it bluntly, I sacrificed value added for society in order to mold the presentation of the research to be compatible with the preferred narratives of the editors and reviewers of high-profile journals.

— Patrick T. Brown (@PatrickTBrown31) September 5, 2023

Campus Reform has covered numerous instances of climate alarmism on college campuses.

In October 2019, Campus Reform reported that the UMass student government declared a “climate emergency” and requested the university administration do the same.

In January, Campus Reform detailed how some California community college students were receiving compensation for climate change activism that was otherwise considered volunteer work. 

Campus Reform has reached out to Johns Hopkins and Brown for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.