Anthony Watts has put in a plug for the Heartland's Not the IPCC report (archived here). I've already summarised the silliness in its executive summary here.
Speaking of anomalies (which I wasn't, but there you go!), Joe Bast of the infamous Heartland Institute made some anomalous comments in the article Anthony reposted. Joe writes:
They quote Dr. Carter, a paelaeontologist and marine geologist and former head of the School of Earth Sciences at James Cook University (Australia), as saying “Currently the planet is cooling.” “Wrong,” they say. “The last decade (2000-2009) was the hottest on record; 2010 was the hottest year recorded.” Their claim is trivially true based on a heavily revised and controversial database that goes back only to about 1850. More reliable satellite data show no warming trend for nearly 17 years and a cooling trend in the last decade. Proxy data show the planet has been cooling since 2,000 years ago and 8,000 years ago.So the scientists' claim is "trivially based" on the actual instrumental record that "only goes back only to about 1850" but Joe is putting forward the "nearly 17 years" as "reliable"!! WTF.
Here are a couple of charts for poor old Joe, since he can't figure out for himself what's what.
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| Data source: NASA |
Joe talked about a "heavily revised and controversial database" - meaning thousands of modern thermometers located all around the world - while he puts forward proxy data based on proxies at several dozen locations at best, and at a much coarser resolution than modern instruments, as incontrovertible fact. Good to know he accepts Marcott et al and maybe even Shakun et al. Most deniers object to them.
You'll notice Joe's denying the denier's favourite Medieval Warm Anomaly and Roman Warming Period, too, writing: "Proxy data show the planet has been cooling since 2,000 years ago and 8,000 years ago"! I guess he can't make up his mind. Here's what the Marcott reconstruction shows, together with the Shakun reconstruction, the modern HadCRUT4 record and where we're heading over the next several decades:
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| Adapted from Jos Hagelaars |
Deniers have been very scatty since the latest IPCC report. Thought you might be amused by this latest example :)
One thing deniers can be relied upon is not to have a consistent and coherent position on anything. It comes from not allowing the evidence to speak for itself. Evidence points in one direction - usually the opposite direction to the one the deniers are looking in.
ReplyDeleteThey're consistent about one thing - Anything But Carbon. That's the only criterion for club membership.
ReplyDeleteWatts is consistent about UHT explaining everything. Lindzen is consistent about negative cloud feedback saving the day (although which day remains unspecified). Monckton is consistent about it being a communist plot. Bast (among others) is consistent about the world having entered a long-term cooling phase. They all stick to the first idea they plucked out of the air however many years ago.
Oops - should be UHI not UHT :(
ReplyDeletePossibly a Freudian like slip, though, given that UHT refers to milk sterilised using high temperatures over a very short time interval :-)
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