The corruption of climate data...
Many of the stations monitoring temperature in the US are in faulty locations....
The theory of global warming began to explain one simple set of factsm-- surface temperature monitoring stations have shown a roughly one degree rise over the past century. But just where does these temperature readings come from? Most are reported by volunteer stations, usually no more than a thermometer inside a small wooden hut or below a roof overhang. In the US, 1,221 such stations exist, all administered by the National Climatic Data Center, a branch of the NOAA.
Two months ago, I reported on an effort to validate this network. A volunteer group headed by meteorologist Anthony Watts had found serious problems. Not only did sites fail to meet the NCDC's requirements, but encroaching development had put many in ridiculously unsuitable locations -- on hot black asphalt, next to trash burn barrels, beside heat exhaust vents, even attached to hot chimneys and above outdoor grills.
Soon thereafter, a Seattle radio station interviewed the head of the NCDC, Dr. Thomas Peterson, informed him of the effort and quizzed him about the problems. Three days later, the NCDC removed all website access to station site locations, citing "privacy concerns." Without this data (which had been public for years), the validation effort was blocked. No more stations could be located.
posted by GayandRight @ 11:22 AM
5 Comments:
Global Warming is this year's big rage (or rave), rather like El Nino, Y2K, shark attacks, and Britney Spears in other years. Skepticism and a rigorous application of scientific method would (and does) head off a lot of folly. As the cliche goes, this too, shall pass, but of course it will be replaced by something equally groan- inducing. I can't wait.
It's one thing to, quite rightly, question the veracity of many of the temperature readings. It is certainly another to say that the planet, and countries in particular, have not experienced a period of "warming" over seasonal averages for the past twenty years. That is simply an irrefutable scientific fact of temperature record-keeping. Even a simple anecdotal observation of temperatures in the past decade makes us realize the summers are getting hotter and more severe, changing the mean averages above normal.
The debate is whether global warming is man-made or not. It is not about whether the globe is actually warming or not. That is, more or less, a factually proven conclusion.
NICE BLOG.
The earth hasn't warmed since 1998 - that was the peak year. Since then, we've had really cold winters in india, siberia, and look at what is happening in south america right now...record cold temperatures.
GW scoffers are just firing off a bunch of unrelated quibbles on the basis that if you throw enough mud some of it will stick. Among other arguments they have proposed are:
- The world is getting warmer, but so is Mars. The underlying cause is solar forcing not CO2.
- The world is not getting warmer because temperature peaked in '98.
- The data are unreliable - so we don't know if the world is getting warmer.
- There is no such thing as global temperature - so we can't know if the world is getting warmer.
These objections aren't even consistent with each other, which reflects the fact that GW scoffers actually don't have a consistent alternative view to the scientific consensus, just a grab-bag of opportunistic objections.
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