Climate Data Re-examined (updated)

An anonymous reader writes "An important paper that re-examines historical climate data was published on 28 October in the respected journal Energy & Environment. (The paper is also available here.) According to an article in Canada's National Post, the paper shows that a "pillar of the Kyoto Accord is based on false calculations, incorrect data and an overtly biased selection of climate records." (USA Today also has a story.) This paper will undoubtedly be controversial and should stir a vigourous data review." Update: 11/05 14:54 GMT by T : newyhouse points out a similarly contrarian 2001 Economist article by Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist .

Comments

Biased environmentalists?

[Dancin_Santa]

Nooooooo!

Sounds familiar!

[Anonymous Coward]

pillar of the Kyoto Accord is based on false calculations, incorrect data and an overtly biased selection of climate records

Sounds a lot like what's been happening here in the US... Rejection of the Kyoto treaty is based on false calculations, incorrect data and an overtly biased selection of cabinet members ;)

Only in Canada

[Sycraft-fu]

Now I don't want to respond to the article's claims, since that'll only spark a flame war I don't want to fight but:

Only in Canada does one see a graph with a flat line then sharp spike and instantly think "Oooo, a hockey stick!"

This just cracks me up because it is absolutely true of most of my Canadian relities, they are just nuts over hockey and I'm sure this doesn't strike any of them as the least bit odd comparison.

Re:Only in Canada

[fiftyfly]

Man I, for one, sure ain't thinkin' aboot hockey. It's fricken cold

So yeah, it's 2am and I'm checking a little weathernetwork just in case it's not too nasty out to go to the timmy's for a little coffee. The news is not good. Very not good. Ok, so -28 is bad but surely there's other people suffering bad weather too eh? So I check Calgary and it's -20. Hrmpf. weenies. Maybe Edmonton? -22. Well goodness... There's gotta be _somebody_ out there a little colder then hicksville^H^H^H^H^H^HOlds....

• Grande Prairie: -18
• High Level: -10
• Whitehorse: -7

WTF?!?! What ever happened to simple arctic weather fronts? It's getting warmer the farther north I check...

• Yellowknife: -15
• Anchorage: +3
• Rankin Inlet: -14

OMG. What is this? Anybody else feeling like the big guy upstairs slapped a 'kick me' sign on you back? Obviously this isn't just a cold front - all the damned cold got fed up with the north and came here. Man it's even only -7 in Winterpeg and only -17 in Churchill. They get polar bears in churchill. And it's 4 deg warmer in Rankin, more then 500km north.

All I can say is there's gonna be on pissed off guy if it doesn't hit the forecasted +6 on sunday.

I wish I could say the above is a little satire, but it's NOT . It's not even like I'm really far north either, being smack inbetween Edmonton & Calgary. Expedia says only 906km from Bozeman.

<sigh/>

Re:Only in Canada

[IamGarageGuy 2]

I fail to see any point to this. I don't see how you could look at this chart and not see a hockey stick. If you don't then you are simply lying to yourself or you are just a freak. Most Canadians are scared of the (non-existent) threat of global warming because of the large investment in outdoor rinks without which we would be continually fighting for indoor icetime. If that ever happens the USA should be very scared. Imagine Canada without enough rinks for the population and the ensuing carnage. It would immediately spill over to the US and Iraq would look like a minor penalty compared to the stick swinging, crazed canadians invading the borders and taking over all the arenas north of Boston. The only safe place for a peace loving American would be in the local breweries (a canadian invasion would surely be equipped with their own beer) Be afraid, be very afraid.

According to the latest research...

[ceeam]

... your vehicle's exhaust won't make any harm to the nature. You can try it: lock yourself in the garage and run the engine for an hour. You won't feel anything bad, serious, it's all harmless stuff, everybody knows that, right? D'oh..

Re:A Bunch of shills

[kfg]

Check out the funding behind this.

Noted, as a potential source of bias.

You seem, however, to have left out your scientific criticism of their methodology and results.

As that criticism will comprise 99% of your final grade it looks like you have some work to do if you expect to pass this course.

KFG

Re: Interesting paper

[Black Parrot]

> You may be interested to know that the Earth was warmer over the vast majority of its history.

Fortunately, we didn't have to live through those times.

Most of the universe is a hard vacuum, but I kind of like having the local fluke we call "the atmosphere".

Re:Who is really responsible??

[Anonymous Coward]

Ya screw all those damn texans from .co.uk

human survival

[m1chael]

nature is sustainable. we bring oil to the surface (just an example) where it doesnt belong and change into objects and then discard them, laying on the surface. sure it will be taken care of by nature but do we have time to wait?

are we able to advance technologically fast enough when the times comes to have an environmentally friendly power source before our world changes and we cannot?

i think this is what darwin had in mind. we shall see... we will see.

Microsoft sponsored

[Anonymous Coward]

This is another Microsoft sponsored review isn't it?.

time

[cheezus]

Posted by Hemos on Wednesday November 05, @04:20AM

So this is what Hemos was doing while hitting his first joint of the day?

Yay!

[FIT_Entry1]

Now I can use hairspray again! Seriously, I looked at the data for the mid to late 1980s and there are distinct spikes in atmospheric GHG that coincide with Poison concert dates.

Re: Interesting paper

[Anonymous Coward]

Appearently, you've seen pictures of me with my shirt off. That's right, Robbin Williams and I have a little bit of an evolutionary head start.

Re:You're forgetting one thing....

[Anonymous Coward]

If that ain't the most retarded statement I've heard all week I'll eat my hat.

Not if that hat was made by burning oil, you won't. You'll DIE!

Re:It's possible, after all

[ambisinistral]

Sounds like a line from a cheesey sci-fi movie. "Good God man, this is like no substance known to man!"

Dum-de-dum-dum.