Watts Up and Jo Nova are reporting that the Gergis/Karoly Hockey Stick paper has been withdrawn. You will recall the original story, widely covered by the lame-stream media, that a new analysis of proxy data showed the warming in the last 50 years was unprecedented in the past millennium. Here is how ACM reported the story:

ACM on 17 May 2012

Thanks to Hockey Stick Breaker in Chief, Steve McIntyre, the paper was put “on hold” after discovery of a “data processing error”.

Now it appears the paper has been withdrawn (see WUWT and Jo Nova).

[crickets chirping]

That’s the sound of the mainstream media’s response to the withdrawal…

Steve McIntyre’s investigation into Gergis et al continues apace. His latest post investigates the “Law Dome” ice core series, and why it has never been published officially, despite being the highest resolution available for the last 2000 years. It was “screened out” of the Gergis paper.

Josh has been on good form once again, with a trio of Gergis based cartoons (click to enlarge each):

Overheating?

Stick sifting

McIntyre at work

Balance - today, at least

UPDATE: The Australian prints an update here (not, however, by science writer Leigh Dayton, who couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge the problem even existed).

For today, at least, The Age’s Adam Morton gets the guernsey for climate reporting (yes, you did read that correctly), for acknowledging the problems with the recent Gergis et al paper (see here, here, here, and here).

Morton, like the majority of environmental journalists, is a (self-selected?) believer in the magnitude and dangers of AGW, but today has shown a welcome streak of balance:

A WIDELY reported study that found the past half-century in Australasia was very likely the warmest in a millennium has been ”put on hold” after a mistake was found in the paper.

Led by scientists from the University of Melbourne, the study involved analysis of palaeoclimatic data from tree rings, coral and ice cores to give what was described as the most complete climate record of the region over the past 1000 years.

It was peer-reviewed and published online by the Journal of Climate in May, but was removed from the website last week at the authors’ request after the discovery of a ”data processing issue” that could affect the results.

Study co-author and climate science professor David Karoly said one of the five authors found the method of analysis outlined in the paper differed to that actually used.

The Climate Audit blog – run by Canadian Steve McIntyre, who has challenged the validity of palaeoclimatic temperature reconstructions – claimed credit for finding the issue with the paper. Professor Karoly said the authors uncovered the problem before Climate Audit blogged about it.

He said the data and results were being reviewed. (source)

Disappointingly, however, The Australian, which has usually been far more balanced in its reporting of climate matters, is so far refusing to publish anything about the developments. When contacted by ACM about the discovery of the problem, suggesting that a similar article to Morton’s be published in the Oz, science writer Leigh Dayton responded:

“I think we’ll have to agree to disagree.”

A curious answer, given the fact that the paper’s authors themselves have acknowledged the issues with the data processing. It’s an indisputable fact that the paper is on hold pending correction, and not a matter of opinion over which one can choose to agree or disagree.

It is likely that the conclusions of the paper will be substantially similar after the review, but in any event, readers of The Australian, who, like readers of The Age, were informed of the fairly sensational claims of the original paper, should also be informed of this important development.