Summary: Today’s post shows how the climate wars about the public policy response to global warming, grow more interesting as both sides abandon science. Unfortunately the public remains apathetic. For good reason, after a decade of constant barrages of misinformation by Left and Right. Especially considering our history, with so much that we knew eventually proven to be false. The climate wars a powerful example of our broken observation-orientation-decision-action (OODA) loop. Let’s hope that the challenges of the 21st century don’t require America to act in a smart or effective way.
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Contents
- May’s temperature shattered the records!
- Government scientists conspire to fake climate data!
- About global cooling
- For More Information
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(1) May’s temperature shattered the records!
“NASA Shows May Global High Temperature Record Shattered as Climate Policy Staggers Forward“, Robert Marston Fanney (fantasy writer; bio here), at his blog RobertScribbler, 18 June 2014. The facts disagree with “shattered”. The datasets differ about the highest May. On the two that show May as a record, the differences are not statistically significant (the opposite of “shattered”).
- NASA GISS dataset: the highest May on record. The anomaly was 0.76°C (1.37°F) above the 1951-1980 average, and 0.06°C (0.11°F) higher than May 2012 and May 2010 (tied)
- NOAA’s NCDC: the warmest May on record. The anomaly was 0.74°C (1.33°F) higher than the 20th century average, and 0.02°C (0.03°F) higher than May 2010 (the second highest).
- HADCRUT4 — “Taking central estimates, May 2014 was globally the warmest May on record. Factoring in uncertainty, we can say it was a top 10 May.” (per Tweet by John Kennedy, UK Met Office)
- RSS satellite record: 6th warmest May
- UAH satellite: 3rd warmest May (details here)
But who cares about the facts when a fantasy writer spins an alarmist story! It has truthiness. Those who believe the alarmist accept each new story. Skeptics don’t believe the alarmists (even when they’re right), but too often believe equally exaggerated stories from activists on their side. For example …
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(2) Government scientists conspire to fake climate data!
Accusations about a secret conspiracy by government scientists sweep through the right-wing blogosphere, further eroding their readers’ confidence in the government (they love conspiracy theories). The truth will never catch up with these stories. That’s why propaganda works.
- “The scandal of fiddled global warming data“, Christopher Booker, The Telegraph, 21 June 2014 — “The US has actually been cooling since the Thirties, the hottest decade on record”.
- “Rigged ‘science’“, op-ed in The Washington Times, 23 June 2014
- “Global Warming ‘Fabricated’ by NASA and NOAA“, Breitbart, 23 June 2014
- “Data fudging: The great global warming scandal“, Thomas Lifson, American Thinker, 23 June 2014
- “Busted! NOAA Using Fabricated Data to Bolster its Alarmist Claims“, Climate Change Dispatch, 23 June 2014
- “Global warming data FAKED by government to fit climate change fictions“, Natural News, 23 June 2014”
- “Global Warming Data FAKED by NOAA. No Global Warming since the 1930s“, Cassy Fiano, Right Wing News, 24 June 2014
- “HOAX OF THE CENTURY: Radical Leftists Caught Manipulating Global Warming Data“, Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit, 24 June 2014
Google shows scores more such stories in the past week. Not one in a thousand of the people reading these imagines the complexity of calculating an average global temperature from the the ever-changing patchwork of surface temperature records. But they’re sure it’s simple, like counting apples.
There might be errors in the calculations; for the facts behind this still-moving story see this post.
Update: This continues to get better. Belief in a secret conspiracy of government scientists manipulating US climate data to exaggerate global warming might join Benghazi BENGHAZI in the right-wing canon.
Update: For more about this story see:
1. Did NASA and NOAA dramatically alter US climate history to exaggerate global warming?
2. Comment threads about global warming show the American mind at work, like a reality-TV horror show
4. Have the climate skeptics jumped the shark, taking the path to irrelevance?, 3 July 2014
If we’re in a credulous mood, why stop at belief in secret conspiracies of government climate scientists? What about …
(3) Speaking of global cooling
“Scientists and Studies predict ‘imminent global COOLING’ ahead“, Climate Depot, 29 June 2014 – “Drop in global temps ‘almost a slam dunk’.” The article gives a potpourri of references, easy to believe if you reject the consensus of actual climate scientists.
Who do they cite? Some scientists with little experience in climate science. Some secondary or tertiary references to the work of Russian scientists (I’ve tried in the past to find English translations of this research, with no success). Some people with no experience in climate science. Solar scientists (much interesting work here; see these posts and links to some research).
For more information about global cooling:
- Articles from the 1970′s about global cooling/warming — Lots of talk in the news media, with quotes for scientists. Not as much supporting research.
- An important letter sent to the President about the danger of climate change, 21 October 2009 — Scientists concern about global cooling had big results, important to this day.
- About the headlines from the 1970s about global cooling, 2 November 2009 — Not what they seem.
- A look at global warming written in a cooler and more skeptical time, giving us a better understanding of climate science, 23 November 2009
- The facts about the 1970’s Global Cooling scare, 7 December 2009
- Looking into the past for guidance about warnings of future climate apocalypses, 17 October 2010
- Start of another swing of the media narrative – to global cooling?, 11 September 2013
- Global Cooling returns to the news, another instructive lesson about America, 25 January 2014
To learn about the consensus of climate scientists see this post (it’s often misstated). To learn about the complexities of consensus client see this post by Judith Curry (Prof, GA Inst Tech).
(4) For More Information
(a) Posts about climate change:
- Posts about climate change
- Science & nature – studies & reports
- The important things to know about global warming
(b) Some posts about our confusion:
- Facts are an obstacle to the reform of America, 20 Oct 2011
- Our minds are addled, the result of skillful and expensive propaganda, 28 December 2011
- Who lies to us the most? Left or Right?, 25 February 2013
- Facts are the enemy of both Left and Right in our America, 12 May 2014
(c) Posts about ability to see our world
- Posts about Information & disinformation, by both the Left and Right. Overwhelming and sad evidence.
- Posts about our broken Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action (OODA) loop.
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