Global Warming Damage Already Done

SEARCH BLOG: GLOBAL WARMING

A few days ago, Anthony Watts posted this:

This just doesn’t seem to add up given what we’ve seen from anecdotal weather information and satellite data. For example the UAH global temperature for the lower troposphere shows that the temperature in 2008 doesn’t get anywhere close to this claim made by NOAA:

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for summer 2008 was 0.85 degrees F (0.47 degrees C) above the 20th century mean of 60.1 degrees F (15.6 degrees C).

From my perspective as surveyor of the USHCN network, and knowing firsthand just how corrupted the data measuring system is, I have a lot of trouble believing this claim. The satellite data says otherwise.

UAH Satellite Derived Global Temperature for the Lower Troposphere - click image for full graph

When you click on the image, you will see a timeline extending back to 1979 with satellite global temperatures versus average [anomaly] The slightly negative anomaly does not correspond to the NOAA claim that:

NOAA: Global Summer Temperature Was Ninth Warmest
Tenth Warmest August Since Records Began

The combined global average land and ocean surface temperature for summer 2008 was the ninth warmest since records began in 1880, and this August was the tenth warmest, according to an analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

What does that mean? Well, besides the obvious that we've got a problem with the metrics... it means that actions based on those metrics are highly speculative and questionable.

Remember Cap and Trade? How about restrictions on burning fossil fuels for power? No more drilling for oil? CAFE?

Come on, people. Global warming? Do the unreasonable to save the planet from overheating?

Well, gee, golly, gosh durn! You mean maybe what gets measured wrong, gets things screwed up?

• Maybe we are in global cooling instead of warming.
• Maybe the polar bears are safe.
• Maybe we are victims of geeks playing computer games.

But none of this really matters since both presidential candidates have decided that global warming is a real threat on which the government must expand regulations and from which it must use its expertise to save us. Just watch those energy bills grow.

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