Wouldn’t it be nice if Global Warming Went Away?
Posted on August 12th, 2007Wouldn't it be nice if global warming just, you know, just went away? Yes it would, but it will not be through a statistical fudge but through hard work.
You see, a lot of people are beaming with joy that NASA's US temperature data had a small error in its analysis, so 1998 is now no longer the hottest year on record, but 1934 is. This lead to some seriously flawed claims like global warming is just a statistical farce and those NASA scientists that made the mistake (and fixed it, and thanked the person who reported it) should be fired. In reality, 1998 and 1934 were always very close to each other (statistically indistinguishable) but with 1998 just nosing ahead. When the error was fixed, 1934 nosed ahead, but still statistically indistinguishable. Yippie.
However, the global trend of warming is still there. The past decade is still the warmest on record. CO2 levels are at extraordinary levels. Global warming is still very much here.
Reading about the story is very amusing, so read it as it unfolded in the following order:
- Kick-off
- Real Climate does a proper debunking
- Deltoid, with graphs and a review of the anti-global warming movement's reactions
- Bad Astronomy with some proper maths
Technorati Tags: global warming, 1934
Subscribe to Blog of Science!
If you liked this post, please subscribe to the blogSci.com RSS feed: ![]()




Social bookmark post (digg, delicious, reddit, etc)
September 6th, 2007 at 5:27 am
My old man was telling me about a documentary he watched a while about whether or not Global warming is actually happening…
I’ll ask him to send me a link to the website of one of the scientists who spoke on the program, but in a nutshell he was saying the Earth has heated up and cooled down (Allot) for hundreds of years… Far worse than we are seeing now, and we even had a mini ice age during the Victorian age (Or something like that, with the Thames being completely frozen?)
Anyway this chap reckons they have data showing that hundreds of years ago, the icecaps had melted more than they have currently and the water level was higher! I can’t remember the exact term it’s called, but basically the earth goes through this cycle of heating up (Icecaps melting) and then goes into a small ice age where they freeze again…
My old man is pretty sceptical about most things, but after seeing what this chap and a few of his colleagues produced he’s now very sceptical about the whole pollution vs. Global warming issue. Especially as they “claimed” that they have tried to tell the government and the environmental scientific community, but the money that the governments invest into Global warming is a “Billion” $ industry and as such the businesses and individuals who are receiving the money will do anything to stop these facts these scientists have from coming to light - Even editing their papers on the research and submitting them!!
I haven’t seen this program yet, but apparently it was on channel 4 a few months back - But I would really like to see it as some things I was being told really did make me think.. And I like to see things first hand before I make any decision either way! Did you see it, or anyone else?