Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) rushed forward last week with the bold news that global warming was alive and well. The BEST study was widely cited as the final word on climate change. Yes, the earth was getting warmer and it was mankind's fault. The New York Time, the Washington Post, and especially the Atlanta Journal Constitution editorialized that the facts were now in. Settled science. End of subject. Skeptic generally withheld comment noting that they had never denied that the earth had warmed .7 of a degree over the last hundred years then they noted it was unusual for a study to be published before it was peer reviewed. Since everyone important agreed the peer review process was a mere formality imagine the angst when the co-author of the study announced that global warming had stopped. Stopped dead! As everyone knows but always seems to forget, the starting point is of paramount importance when graphing a trend. The upper chart shows the historical warming that is undisputed as the earth emerged from the "little ice age". The second graph shows global warming has flat lined for ten years.
Prof Judith Curry, who chairs the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at America’s prestigious Georgia Institute of Technology, said that Prof Richard Muller’s claim that he has proven global warming skeptics wrong was also a ‘huge mistake’, with no scientific basis. Dr. Curry was once very much a global warming believer. In the past few years skeptics have viewed her as an honest scientist. It appears she is just that. As for the true believers; the BEST of times might be the worst of times.
No comments:
Post a Comment