Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ∼12,800 Years Ago, Parts 1 and 2: A Discussion

Holliday et al. 2020: the burning compilation challenged

what the source states

A formal discussion of the Wolbach compilation challenged its data selection, its treatment of chronological uncertainty, the claimed statistical exceptionalism of the onset-age peaks, and the reproducibility of the global-burning interpretation, concluding the evidence does not support an extraordinary synchronous episode.

what we infer

Two of the authors built the global charcoal database the compilation drew on — this is the data's own custodians disputing the use made of it. With Wolbach's reply, the honest status of the fire claim is "disputed, with the independent synthesis against it," not "refuted."

limitations

• Answered point-by-point by Wolbach et al. in the same volume (10.1086/706265); the exchange remains open.