retraction, feb. 21, 2019: this op-ed has been retracted for failing to meet the western journal’s editorial standards. after publication, a number of factual claims made in the op-ed were determined to have been untrue. the decision was then made to retract the piece. before we had done that, questions were raised about the methodology used by its authors to reach their conclusions, but because the decision to retract had already been made, the western journal did not investigate the validity of those questions. we note them here only for the record.  we apologize for publishing material in violation of our editorial standards of factual accuracy and for any confusion we might have caused by doing so.  the views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. if you are interested in contributing an op-ed to the western journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.  we are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. read our editorial standards.
[retracted] media hysteria: climate change 'heat records' are a huge data manipulation