As a published scientist with papers in prestigious journals like PNAS, Science Advances, and others, I’m intimately familiar with the peer-review process. [emphasis, links added]
It’s far from perfect—plagued by biases, delays, and occasional gatekeeping—but it remains the gold standard for disseminating expert, evidence-based information in a timely and accurate manner.
That said, when peer review gets weaponized to push a narrative, it crosses into dangerous territory. We’ve seen this before in the climate science community, as I detailed in my piece “Manufacturing Consensus” and as exposed in the infamous Climategate emails from 2009.
In those leaked messages, Dr. Michael Mann (of hockey-stick graph fame) explicitly discussed using the peer-review system to block dissenting papers, stating they would “redefine what the peer-review literature is” to keep out views that challenged the alarmist consensus.
Fast forward to today, and it feels like history is repeating itself.
A brand-new paper in Environmental Research Letters (ERL), titled “Shutdown of northern Atlantic overturning after 2100 following deep mixing collapse in CMIP6 projections” by Sybren Drijfhout and colleagues, claims the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), often sensationalized as the “ocean conveyor belt” that could trigger a climate catastrophe, is on track for a shutdown after 2100 under high-emission scenarios.
The paper relies heavily on computer model projections (CMIP6) and paints a dire picture of collapsing deep ocean mixing, leading to extreme cooling in Europe and global disruptions.
This isn’t just sloppy science… It’s hard to imagine experienced authors, reviewers, and editors overlooking such recent, high-profile work by accident.
But here’s the red flag: it mis-cites a key 2024 paper on the Florida Current (a major AMOC component) that actually shows long-term stability, and it completely omits two bombshell papers published this year in the journal Nature that directly contradict the idea of an imminent AMOC collapse.
This isn’t just sloppy science… It’s hard to imagine experienced authors, reviewers, and editors overlooking such recent, high-profile work by accident.
As someone who’s navigated peer review countless times, I can tell you: omitting or misrepresenting directly relevant papers from the same year, especially ones that torpedo your core claims, would never pass muster with my academic advisors, coauthors, reviewers, or editors.
It smacks of deliberate cherry-picking, ignoring any data that doesn’t fit the alarmist narrative. Why?
Because this narrative fuels billions in taxpayer-funded grants for activist scientists, NGOs, and global elites, while justifying more control over everyday life—from energy policies to, yes, even restrictions on things like owning a dog under “sustainable” living mandates.
This isn’t new.
Peer review is like a quality check where experts vet a paper before publication. But when it’s rigged to exclude inconvenient truths, it becomes … propaganda.
Recall Dr. Richard Lindzen (MIT emeritus), whose peer-reviewed critiques of climate alarmism led to editors being fired or pressured to retract papers.
Or the Orwellian experience at the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, where a paper challenging the consensus was yanked under dubious circumstances.
Editors seem complicit, allowing this academic fraud to persist because it aligns with the “climate crisis” storyline.
The ERL paper’s authors clearly rely on the notion that the AMOC is in “desperate need of saving,” which conveniently calls for more funding, more models, and more policy interventions.
For non-scientists: Peer review is like a quality check where experts vet a paper before publication. But when it’s rigged to exclude inconvenient truths, it becomes a tool for propaganda.
Top image by Markus Kammermann via Pixabay
Irrational Fear is written by climatologist Dr. Matthew Wielicki and is reader-supported. If you value what you have read here, please consider subscribing and supporting the work that goes into it.
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Scientists who don’t understand the mechanical Coriolis-forces of the rotating globe aren’t scientists.