A phony scientific paper has the blogosphere and global warming skeptics in an uproar.
The Nov. 3 online publication in the "Journal of Geoclimatic Studies" is attributed to Daniel Klein and colleagues in the Dept. of Climatology at the University of Arizona and elsewhere. Klein, his colleagues, the Dept. of Climatology, and the journal, however, don't exist. They are the apparent creation of David Thorpe, a UK-based journalist and web-site designer, who posted the phony report online to "test the scientific illiteracy and credulity of global warming skeptics" (see his description of the hoax at http://pranks.com/2007/11/12/geoclimatic-studies-hoax/).
The phony study claimed that global warming is caused by large quantities of CO2-emitting bacteria on the sea floor, and not by humans.
Reuters News Agency put out a story (http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2007/11/08/bacteria-hoax-briefly-fools-climate-sceptics /) about skeptics being taken in by the hoax, at least briefly, spreading the word that, "This could not be more damaging to manmade global warming theory..."
The blogosphere is rife with stabs at the skeptics, including Rush Limbaugh, for being so gullible, while the skeptics are claiming to have spotted the hoax very quickly and grumbling about 'black ops' tactics by the other side.
There is a nice summary of the hoax at http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/the-life-and-death-of-a-climate-hoax/.
The hoax paper is now posted as a pdf at http://www.cyberium.co.uk/downloads/Journal%20of%20Geoclimatic%20Studies.pdf