re: #310 ThatGuy

I think you might be swayed a bit too much by the “scientific experts” here, and possibly might not have read Will’s column carefully enough. He prefaced his statement that WMO records show no years warmer than 1998 by a reference to the AGW proponents’ working hypothesis that temperature increases correspond to increases of CO2 (although inferentially - his actual phrase was: “Reducing carbon emissions supposedly will reverse warming”). His point is that in the past 10 years of greatly increasing CO2, we should expect to see some year warmer than 1998. If you check the link to WMO records, you find at page page 4 Figure 2, which shows that 2007 (the latest year in the chart) ranks behind 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, in addition to 1998. At the top of page 5 the WMO document states, “All temperature values have uncertainties, which arise mainly from gaps in data coverage. The size of the uncertainties is such that the global average temperature for 2007 is statistically indistinguishable from each of the nine warmest years on record.” (emphasis mine) In other words 2007 is “statistically indistinguishable” from the years 1997 - 2006. My take from the WMO data: Have we really experienced an alarming increase in global temperature in the past decade, if these years are “statistically indistinguishable”?

Is Will distorting the evidence, or is he simply drawing a different conclusion than the scientists with a vested interest in perpetuating AGW? What about your source here, Zimmer, who as a writer for NYTimes, is a member of the MSM which is pushing AGW? I would have more respect for him if he posted something challenging some of the atrocious scientific reasoning that exists in many MSM global warming articles.

I don’t have as much respect for Will’s work as I used to, but I think that you are making a mountain out of a molehill, when the criticism is about one line - making a statement about a matter of scientific fact that is true - in a column devoted to making the point that governments acting on “scientific evidence” can screw things up royally.

As far as Zimmer goes, he cites the WMO statement “The linear warming trend over the past 50 years (0.13C per decade) is nearly twice that for the past 100 years.” The disingenousness of this statement is shown graphically in easily understandable charts from the recent 2009 International Conference on Climate Change republished in Power Line. Check them out: [Link: www.powerlineblog.com…]

I’m probably lose some respect for you too if you keep posting about Zimmer’s criticism of Will.

This is actually not true at all. Do look at some of my other links.