Update: For a more complete rundown and rebuttal to Anthony's video, visit citizenschallenge at What's Up With That Watts.
As if Matt Ridley isn't enough, Anthony Watts has to memorialise his disinformation in a talk to doctors. Anthony said he got paid $250 dollars plus travel and accommodation. I wonder what they paid the audience who had to sit through it?
Anthony said he got his ideas from Matt Ridley and provides a link, so I went and checked it out. Matt Ridley is "yet to be convinced" that cities don't yet cover the entire planet. He seems to think the surface temperature is inflated and that satellites tell the true story. Okay - let's compare GISTemp and UAH:
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| Data Sources: GISTemp and UAH |
Now you can see why Ridley is all talk and no show. If he compared the two data sets he'd be forced to admit there is barely any difference between the two. UAH is slightly higher in the early 1980s which makes the slope very slightly different. GISTemp gets its data from thermometers on the earth's surface. UAH infers the temperature above the surface, in the case of the above, from the lower troposphere. I'm not sure how far above the surface this is on average - maybe a reader will tell us. The other thing is that UAH stops short of the poles AFAIK. They both have deficiencies but they are in fairly close agreement just the same.
Since Matt can't even get his first point right I'm not going to bother with his other nine points. I'll move onto Anthony's presentation.
I skipped through the first 13 minutes of the video. I think they were mostly Anthony introducing himself. He's a bit longwinded. Finally he gets to what he called the ten tests. He starts by saying "the global temperature trend is fairly modest" about 0.1 degrees (Celsius) a decade and puts up this chart:
Notice that he starts the chart in 1979 and deliberately shows monthly data to hide the signal in among the noise of the monthly and seasonal fluctuations.
It gets better. Anthony does explain that the temperature has risen by about 0.8 degrees Celsius. It's what he does next that takes the cake and shows him up as a snake oil salesman.
See - it's not alarming at all. He expands the scale of the temperature axis so he can say that the global temperature is flat!
Anthony goes on to say: "But when you look at it over a period of thirty years, which by the way is the choice of the researcher. There's no standard for choosing a base period, you can choose any base period you want, you can make things look pretty alarming."
Anthony puts up a chart by Steve Goreham, who Anthony said "had this graph in one of his Republications (sic)!" That's the chart where he compared seasonal fluctuations in Chicago with global temperatures. Nothing to worry about sez Tony because it's warmer in summer than winter!
What a nutter. I animated the Goreham chart when I wrote about it a few weeks back. Figured I'd make Chicago mean temperature look flat. Anyone can do that trick, Anthony!
I'm trying to imagine the doctors in the audience saying to the parents of a child with a fever. There's nothing to worry about. Your child will feel a temperature difference of twenty degrees Celsius in the one day on occasion. A measly rise of four degrees in body temperature isn't alarming by comparison.
Okay - now I'm bored. I can't watch any more of the video. It's mainly WUWT garbage and extremely dull and not clever at all.
I don't think Anthony put up "it's insects" or anything fun like that to liven things up. So not clever, not right and not funny.
ROTFL - The Ultimate Insult - Easily On Par with Monckton!
The illiterati loved it. Here is the epitomy of accolades or insults, depending on whether you are a science denying illiterati or a science lover. Phil Ford says:
August 20, 2013 at 12:44 am Thanks for posting the video presentation, Anthony – as a non scientist/engineer/climatologist (i.e. just an ordinary ‘bloke’) I appreciated your clear delivery, your understandable explanations and your humour. It’s great to be invited to watch and listen to a level-headed, informed talk such as this. One of the best I’ve seen in a long while – and easily on a par with Monckton for sheer viewing pleasure.
