Global Warming Caused by Computer Error?
John on August 9, 2007 at 11:45 pm
The very week that Newsweek proclaims man-made global warming a certainty which only “deniers” would dispute, this story breaks. [HT: Hot Air]
Climate scientist Michael Mann (famous for the hockey stick chart) once made the statement that the 1990’s were the warmest decade in a millennia and that “there is a 95 to 99% certainty that 1998 was the hottest year in the last one thousand years.” (By the way, Mann now denies he ever made this claim, though you can watch him say these exact words in the CBC documentary Global Warming: Doomsday Called Off).
Well, it turns out, according to the NASA GISS database, that 1998 was not even the hottest year of the last century. This is because many temperatures from recent decades that appeared to show substantial warming have been revised downwards.
Click over to read the whole thing. It is now certain that NASA made a Y2K error in their critical climate data which made the 90’s look hotter than they were. Oops!
Of course this doesn’t change the situation for the entire world, just for the US. Still, it’s a significant admission. We’ll see if anyone in the MSM will cover this at all.
Category: Science & Tech |
and yet…..
Maybe nobody told the Meteorological Office in Britain, but they seem pretty clear we’re in for a hot future.
Feelin hot hot hot
Given the consequences if global warming is indeed truth, I wonder how convincing the evidence has to get before the majority of us are prepared to change our lifestyles for the long term benefit of our children, grandchildren etc.
August 10, 2007 @ 12:15 amI am a regular reader of your article. And I am very impress with your blog upon Global Warming. Now I am also write a blog upon effects and causes of Global Warming. This blog is collection of news & reviews like the study found that global warming since 1985 has been caused neither by an increase in solar radiation nor by a decrease in the flux of galactic cosmic rays. Some researchers had also suggested that the latter might influence global warming because the rays trigger cloud formation.
August 10, 2007 @ 3:31 amIt remains to be seen whether MSM will cover this, but someone’s paying attention. ClimateAudit.org, the site where news of the error was first released, has been unavailable since yesterday afternoon. A Denial of Service attack is suspected.
August 10, 2007 @ 7:32 amScott,
I noticed it was down. Where did you hear about the DDoS or are you surmising? That would be a story in itself if confirmed.
August 10, 2007 @ 10:30 amThe thing is – as in chaos theory in general … no one can claim to be 100% certain in anything.
But if I were hedging my bets – anthroprogenic climate change is happening and it’s of the order of 95% probability, the same scale (we) scientists use to judge something as accurate.
The deniers usually have already taken action to insulate themselves from the worst effects – or have an interest in maintaining the status quo.
This short term-ism won’t win us any fans with our children or children’s children….
and with an ageing (western) population – that is an important consideration!
August 10, 2007 @ 11:02 amHi John,
I read it at Clayton Cramer’s blog, who saw the story here.
Climate Audit is still down. The reason for that is unclear, but it is mighty suspicious.
August 10, 2007 @ 1:05 pmGlobal changes cannot be measurable in terms of years or even decades. Such chnages globally would have to be seen in the context of centuries at the least. These climate changes in my opinion are cyclical, not caused by humans.
FYI – I live in Hillsborough County Florida. If you gathered all the living humans and had them stand in a 4 square foot square they could all fit in my county with one or two billion to spare. Now, they claim that automobiles are causing the global warming. Of the six billion people on earth, how many own a car? Half? No. Probably 1/4 of the population and that is liberal.
How long has the automobile been on the earth? 100 years. So in one hundred years we’ve altered the future of the earth, supposedly. It is the liberal attempt to champion some cause that soothes their conscience. You don’t see them giving up their lifestyle, do you? And if the answer is giving up our cars, well, prepare to die.
Honework – see how many square miles are in your county and divide it be square feet and see if six billion can fit in your county.
August 10, 2007 @ 1:58 pmClimate Audit may be down owing to an unprecedented level of traffic in response to their breaking this story.
Henry, what use is it to know if everybody could stand in my county? What sort of existence would it be if we all had to stand up the whole time with people next to us on all sides?
It’s not just cars that contribute to global climate change. Think of the energy that goes into making stuff we now just throw away before it’s worn out – stuff like bathroom suites, wall and floor tiles, clothes, electrical equipment, cars, plastic packaging, bottles and tins. Manufacturing is where the brunt of the problem lies, and our economies’ dependence on making people replace stuff that doesn’t need replacing but is no longer ‘the thing’ to have. We will have to return to our grandparents notions of make do and mend, or the planet will be used up before we know it.
August 10, 2007 @ 2:16 pmI find it difficult to fathom that all this happened in less than 100 years. Guess what, though, we will not do much to change it. Planes, industries, cars, mansions, large church buildings, and all the rest will not only not recede, they will increase.
Like heroin, we are addicted!
The population size illustration was meant to give us some perspective of what we are speaking about.
August 10, 2007 @ 2:21 pmHeroin is an excellent simile. We are addicted, and as a parent of two young children I genuinely worry about what of the planet’s resources we are going to leave for them.
On the hundred years thing, we have very rapidly adopted a behaviour that is harmful to ourselves and our environment. Our planet (like most ecosystems) is more fragile than it might seem once one element develops excessive control over it. We have done that for a great many years before anyone noticed, and many people still don’t believe it.
Partly, I think humans believe we are invincible. We have triumphed over every problem we’ve encountered so far, and we think somebody will find a way to beat every problem we encounter in the future without us all having to have less stuff. It’s just not true.
August 11, 2007 @ 4:34 amOne of the bloggers at Climate Audit has sent an e-mail confirming that the site was brought down by a Denial of Service attack, and that the site will be temporarily unavailable while it is moved to a new server with better security.
I found this info at Greenie Watch.
ClimateAudit.org is still down at this time.
August 11, 2007 @ 1:07 pmHenry Frueh said: “Like heroin, we are addicted!”
We are also “addicted” to eating and breathing and drinking fresh clean water and living in a container that keeps us out of the weather. All these things cost money and damage the environment as a result of their consumption. I think the word “addicted” is being abused in this case because “addiction” implies directly harmful effects to the body as with drugs. Automobiles and electric power plants are not only directly harmful to humans but on the contrary are breathtakingly beneficial. Try turning of the electricity to a hospital and you’ll see what I mean.
Yes, burning fossil fuels dumps billions of pounds of carbon into the atmosphere but green plants on land and in the oceans take carbon out of the air. If the Earth warms will green plants grow farther north and south? If so how many billions of pounds of carbon will be pulled out of the air to support a 10 percent increase in the green plant life on this planet? All these pointy headed climatologists want to get their complicated climate model funded by tax dollars but none of them seem to be able or willing to answer my simple question.
Lets also not forget that the Y2K horror predictions were not only wrong they were spectacularly wrong. Also don’t forget that the weather weenies can’t even tell us if it will rain on Tuesday of next week but yet they claim with a straight face that they can predict the weather 50 years from now.
Don’t forget that all our energy needs could be solved with nuclear power but we freely choose not to take that path. It is however an option for the future when the oil runs out.
August 11, 2007 @ 2:43 pmClimate Change aside (and isn’t it funny that it is the country which contributes most to CO2 emissions that questions it the most – hmm) surely this comes down to stewardship and our responsibility to God for caring for HIS earth. Besides which there is a clear moral dimension.
UK government estimates say that it would require the equivalent of 2 1/2 earths to provide enough resources for the entire earth to live the lifestyle of the average European. Now, if the earth that God provided for us wasn’t designed to support the lifestyle we are living, then we are the ones who need to change – anything else is purely selfish!
August 15, 2007 @ 11:27 pm“But if I were hedging my bets – anthroprogenic climate change is happening and it’s of the order of 95% probability, the same scale (we) scientists use to judge something as accurate.”
Actually, in the Climagate emails they discuss the probability of their own findings, while figuring out how to make vaguely possible sound more certain. As I recall, even their own calculations (which we now know to be both bogus and ignorant) said 64%, nowhere near 95%.
January 3, 2010 @ 12:41 am