Reply to comment by von Storch and Zorita on “Hockey sticks, principal components, and spurious significance”

Abstract

Von Storch and Zorita [2005] (hereinafter referred to as VZ) concur that the Mann et al. [1998] (hereinafter referred to as MBH98) principal component (PC) method "very often shows a hockey stick shaped pattern even if the data was by construction free of such structures" - the Artificial Hockey Stick (AHS) effect. We did not claim that the AHS effect applied to all situations. We did claim that it affected MBH98 [McIntyre and McKitrick, 2005a, 2005b] (hereinafter referred to as MM05a and MM05b, respectively), where the AHS effect interacted with flawed bristlecone proxies.