As I said in Post #1452 – go to the original source. The claim that there has been no warming for the past 18 years is absolute BS, and largely relies on the fact that 1997/1998 was an incredibly warm year, helped by a very significant El Nino event, the strongest of the 20th century. Ten of the warmest years since temperature recordings have been kept have all occurred since the year 1997. 2014 was one of those 10 warmest years, even beating 1998, and that was without the help of an El Nino event.
The data show, with 100% certainty, that the decade 2000 – 2010 was warmer than 1990 – 2000. In fact each decade for the past 40 years has been measurably warmer than each preceding decade. The data are out there. Go to NOAA, to NASA, to HadCRUT, they’re all readily available, and plot them for yourselves. Agreed, surface temperatures are not climbing as quickly as they were prior to 2000, but they are still climbing. Sea subsurface temperatures, and deep ocean temperatures on the other hand, have shown no pause whatsoever, and both have continued to climb at a pretty much undiminished rate since 1970.
As Bob P correctly points out, it’s not about individual years – it’s about long term trends, and I’m sorry guys, but that remains upwards for now. If this year and the next, and the next are cooler and the trend levels out or reverses, I’ll be the first to admit I’m wrong, but I can’t see a trend reversal happening in my lifetime.
If you are really interested, this essay gives a reasonable history of the research into climate change, with citations. It's quite a long read, but gives a pretty much step by step account of how we got to where we are now in climate research, with comments on both pro and anti stances.
The Modern Temperature Trend
The data show, with 100% certainty, that the decade 2000 – 2010 was warmer than 1990 – 2000. In fact each decade for the past 40 years has been measurably warmer than each preceding decade. The data are out there. Go to NOAA, to NASA, to HadCRUT, they’re all readily available, and plot them for yourselves. Agreed, surface temperatures are not climbing as quickly as they were prior to 2000, but they are still climbing. Sea subsurface temperatures, and deep ocean temperatures on the other hand, have shown no pause whatsoever, and both have continued to climb at a pretty much undiminished rate since 1970.
As Bob P correctly points out, it’s not about individual years – it’s about long term trends, and I’m sorry guys, but that remains upwards for now. If this year and the next, and the next are cooler and the trend levels out or reverses, I’ll be the first to admit I’m wrong, but I can’t see a trend reversal happening in my lifetime.
If you are really interested, this essay gives a reasonable history of the research into climate change, with citations. It's quite a long read, but gives a pretty much step by step account of how we got to where we are now in climate research, with comments on both pro and anti stances.
The Modern Temperature Trend
