That’s what I get from this graph (via K-Thug):
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by DougJ| 53 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Good News For Conservatives
That’s what I get from this graph (via K-Thug):
Comments are closed.
Hypnos
The data is cooked, also.
If reality had any bearing on the “skeptics”‘ position, they would actually be skeptics, rather than deniers.
Morbo
But… we just had snow in May! How can global warming be real when our little corner of the planet got cold enough for that on one day?
Sir Nose'D
But it is all part of a natural cycle! It is just coincidence CO2 is a heat trapping gas, it is increasing in our atmosphere because of fossil fuel emissions and land use change, and the climate models fit the data well. Why won’t scientists give “the mysterious natural cycle” hypothesis a fair shake?
4tehlulz
And this may be _good_ for us. Why won’t you consider that you liberal hippie traitors?
John
What does the y-axis mean? “average temperature anomaly”? I don’t understand what Krugman is talking about.
DougJ
@John:
Follow the link.
arguingwithsignposts
60 Minutes. I forgot how good they can be.
El Cid
This is simply a graph of the size of Al Gore’s house.
RSA
You know how it goes: As if by magic, someone who hasn’t cracked a science or math book since high school will suddenly become an expert in statistical analysis of time series, data collection, oceanography, ecology, and philosophy of science.
toujoursdan
But it’s also gotten hotter on Mars, also, too… Don’t you know that coincidence always equals correlation?
RSA
@John:
The legend at the bottom of the data file Krugman points to explains how to convert the numbers into absolute temperatures. My understanding is that they’re deviations from a baseline of 14.0 degrees C, in units of 0.01 degrees.
The Moar You Know
Al Gore wears earth tones. And sighed a lot.
El Cid
@toujoursdan:
You know the denialists are
getting desperatehaving fun when they ignore direct measurements of the Sun’s energy output and substitute initial measurements of at least some warming on some parts of Mars as proof that the Sun’s heating up.It’s one of my favorite weirdo arguments of the denialist communities, this continual theorizin’ that none of the climate scientists looking at the Earth’s energy systems ever thought to look up in the sky and see if the Sun’s still hot, or still just as hot, or any hotter.
Nope, they were all waitin’ on readers of Atlas Shrugged to tell them that maybe they needed to measure solar output.
Kryptik
Don’t forget guys that the data is all on account of “tricks”
mistermix
@El Cid: I thought it was the altitude of his private jet.
Hunter Gathers
OT , but this is the greatest political ad ever.
bcwbcw
toujoursdan: So far the “mars” responses miss the point – mars has almost no atmosphere, it’s “ice” is frozen methane and it’s average temperature is something like -40F and bounces around wildly. Referencing Mars to talk about Earth’s weather is like talking about rainfall amounts on the moon. – total nonsene.
bcwbcw
toujoursdan: the “mars” responses miss the point; mars has almost no atmosphere, it’s “ice” is frozen methane and it’s average temperature is something like minus 40F amd bounces around wildly. Referencing Mars to talk about Earth’s weather is like talking about rainfall amounts on the moon. – total nonsene
cmorenc
@toujoursdan
There’s a longtime prominent amateur astronomer (physician by trade), Dr. Don Parker (from south Florida), whose focal interest for many years has been planetary studies, particularly Mars. He’s actually made some valuable contributions in this field that have won recognition from professional planetary scientists.
Unfortunately, his other focal interest is being a prominent, hyper-active member of the global warming denial crowd, specifically building on two themes: a) warming is also occurring on some of the other planets, so any warming happening on earth is purely a natural phoenomena having nothing to do with man’s activities; b) the scientists who have been building and supporting the case for global warming have been engaged in a wilfully fraudulent enterprise, including to get grant money, and should be prosecuted for fraud and perjury (in grant applications and testimony before Congress). Oh, BTW Dr. Parker thinks most climate scientists are full of crap and don’t know what they’re talking about, even apart from the fraud.
If a tea party radicalized GOP ever retakes Congress and Inhofe regains chairmanship of the Senate Environment Committee, expect a far more aggressive, dangerous personal attack against legitimate climate scientists. There’s lots of Dr. Don Parker types whispering in Inhofe’s ear.
bcwbcw
toujoursdan: the “mars” responses miss the point; mars has almost no atmosphere, it’s “ice” is frozen methane and it’s average temperature is something like minus40F amd bounces around wildly. Referencing Mar’s to talk about Earth’s weather is like talking about rainfall amounts on the moon. – total nonsene
cmorenc
What’s with all the STRIKETHROUGHS all over this thread? It’s even infecting the sidebars listing “Blogs John Reads”.
toujoursdan
I was being snarky. Trust me. I’m no denialist. Climate change was a major factor in bringing down many, if not most, past civilizations, and I think it will be a major factor (along with peak oil and overpopulation) in bringing down ours.
Steeplejack
@cmorenc:
I believe it is because WordPress does not like a single hyphen right in front of a word. And by “does not like,” I mean it takes it as a command to strike through the following text. FYWP.
Really unfortunate because some commenters like to sign off with a hyphen and their name, despite the fact that their name is plastered at the top of the comment.
ETA: And I believe the “everything is stricken” phenomenon usually happens when someone does the hyphen-fu at the very end of their comment.
Barkley G
The medieval warming period seems to be a favorite with the denial crowd.
gnomedad
@RSA:
Until the “Bell Curve” argument shows up. Then they will stand in awe of the data and its masterful analysis.
Citizen_X
It also means the Earth is COOLING.* Can’t you see that???
*(Because there was a slight decrease in the rate of warming in the mid 2000’s.)
LD50
Global cooling started as soon as Al Gore said he invented the internet.
wrb
I was looking at this stuff at Joe Romm’s site yesterday and came across this link in the comments.
Try checking all the boxes. This year is heading for hell.
Randy P
If you do a linear regression from that peak around 1999 to that valley around 2009, you will get a downward sloping line. That proves that global warming is a hoax and actually the earth is cooling.
(I’m pretty sure the late lamented BOB quoted that one, but he didn’t invent it).
Edit: For those asking, this graph is showing the difference between temperature that year and the average temperature from 1951-1980. So it’s the increase relative to a very recent period. It’s in hundredths of a degree C, so it means that we’re now about half a degree C above that 1951-1980 level.
That’s too easy. They’ll point the word “hundredths” and say it’s insignificant. Can you feel a difference in a hundredth of a degree? Har, har. Wait for Rush to be laughing about how half a degree is a heat wave, har, har.
The denialists literally do not understand the concept of average.
toujoursdan
All snark aside, there is a very good, but depressing, article on what we’ve done to the oceans on “The Oil Drum” blog, which is every bit as worthy to bookmark as BJ. The comments are as good as the articles themselves.
someguy
. Has somebody misplaced a decimal point on that graph? I haven’t looked at annual temperature anomaly recently but monthly temperature anomaly over the last 120 years or so is usually expressed in tenths of a degree centigrade. Monthly temperature anomaly has been increasing a bit toward 1 degree (.3, .4, .5, .7, etc), but I’d be surprised if it is rising to 70 degrees (which would make some of our temps well over 100 degrees C on the hot days). I’m not a climatologist so I guess you’re within reason to assume I’m a paid shill for BP’s Evading Federal Regulation Division, but you might want to check those figures with somebody who does know what the fuck they are talking about. Just sayin…
Barry
strike out?SRW1
Yeah, but this is just sprinkling data points along some kinds of axes and then connecting the dots. What kind of a ‘science’ is that?
You guys obviously didn’t do any snow shoveling this winter! Also. Too.
PeakVT
Every time Al Gore sighs, the temperature goes up.
You know the denialists are getting desperate having fun when they ignore direct measurements of the Sun’s energy output
Another problem with blaming it on the Sun is in the details of the temperate changes. If the Sun were the cause, we would be seeing more warming at the equator, more warming during the day, and more warming in the summer. Instead, we’re seeing the opposite.
Randy P
@someguy:
Krugman says it’s in hundredths of a degree. So the anomaly now, compared to the 1951-1980 period he’s using as a baseline, is about 50-60/100 = 0.5-0.6 deg C. That’s in line with your statement about “increasing toward 1 degree.”
Poopyman
@Randy P:
Not when it gets in the way of their narrative, they don’t.
Thanks for pointing out the scale, Randy. I was thinking it might be the aggregate day-by-day difference from avg.
Poopyman
Thought experiment: When we shoot the BP executives into the sun, will that increase or decrease solar output?
SRW1
@Poopyman:
Decrease. To flambé these guys is never going to recover the upfront investment of heating them to 6,000 degrees.
ppcli
@Poopyman:
It shouldn’t be a problem as long as we do it at night.
Martin
@Randy P:
There’s a lot of basic concepts they don’t understand. Our new goal for educating non-scientists really needs to be when to recognize when they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about and either:
1) Put in the work to learn what the fuck they’re talking about
2) Defer to those people that do know what the fuck they’re talking about, and how to properly identify these people.
If we could get that established and really embraced in middle school, we’d solve half the problems we have in this country.
russell
mama says cross you out
Martin
Oh, and I don’t see the problem with the graph. When they show stock market graphs that look like that, everyone is happy. After all, up is always good – that’s the way to heaven.
trollhattan
[Whoops, IE strikethrough stunt in effect, beginning with the minus hyphen in post 17.]
re. Spinning, I imagine George Will’s bowtie is spinning madly as he taxis out to the Denialist International Airport runway, readying himself for takeoff. “To print; to the airwaves; to VICTORY!”
Tell us why we shouldn’t be worried, George. I’m afraid to be afraid.
steve
ten bucks says regardless of the content, DougJ’s next post will be tagged ‘good news for conservatives’.
any takers?
S. cerevisiae
I just keep thinking about Jared Diamond’s “Collapse” and how the Easter Islanders felt when the last tree was cut. I wonder if they had their own wingnuts braying about tree-huggers.
Bill H
The last time the sun went without any sunspots (see: Maunder Minimum) the Earth suffered a cold spell, this past spell without any sunspots the Earth warmed up. That proves… Um, something.
Bill Murray
@mistermix: No it’s definitely house size, since thermal expansion is usually linear with temperature increase, especially at this level of temperature increase.
And I would make my students redo that graph. No axis labels, discrete data connected with a line, but at least the numbers are legible
BlizzardOfOz
I love how you guys mock the “it’s cold outside! global warming is bogus!” argument, then turn around and make the exact same argument yourselves.
RP
fixedtest
TooManyJens
@Hunter Gathers: Sweet mother of fuck.
@BlizzardOfOz: Yes, because one day’s weather is absolutely the same thing as a 15-year trend.
oopsie
– one minus sign and the board freaks!
oopsie
–
Proton