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Blogger Finds Bug in NASA Global Warming Study?

An anonymous reader writes "According to an article at DailyTech, a blogger has discovered a Y2K bug in a NASA climate study by the same writer who accused the Bush administration of trying to censor him on the issue of global warming. The authors have acknowledged the problem and released corrected data. Now the study shows the warmest year on record for the contiguous 48 states as being 1934, not 1998 as previously reported in the media. In fact, the corrected study shows that half of the 10 warmest years on record occurred before World War II." The article's assertion that there's a propaganda machine working on behalf of global warming theorists is outside the bounds of the data, which I think is interesting to note.

12 of 755 comments (clear)

  1. so.. by apodyopsis · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I've lost count... is this report now politically acceptable to the Bush administration or not?

    What's their current line?

  2. Re:US vs World by DriveDog · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It's due to being in denial.

  3. Re:But what's the consensus by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Think of the scientists! Without Global Warming, they would have nothing to bleat about.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  4. Re:But what's the consensus by IckySplat · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Some things to remember guys...

    There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

    It's a pity that the politicians decided to take an interest in science.
    As they've waded into the debate, good scientists have felt pressured
    into arguing with them. I'd like to take this opportunity to remind every one of...
    "Never argue with an idiot. They will will just drag you down to their level,
    then beat you with experience"

    As for global warming, even if the experts are right (and I think they may well be)
    There is fuckall we can do about it. The basic problem is too many people who
    want the little luxuries of life, good food, water an SUV and 10 kids.
    Earths population is now what 6billion. I can remember as a kid when it was only 3.5billion
    In 20-30 years it will be 12+ billion. Assuming widespread disease, starvation etc doesn't bring
    these number down a little.

    Lets face fact. Were done for. I strongly suggest investing in Tinned food and a shotgun.
    If they're right it might just save your life.
    If they're wrong, you still have some tinned food and a shotgun :)
    Buying land thats 100meters at least above sea level and a rowboat might also be a good idea.

    So long and thanks for all the fish :)

    --
    Help! help!, the termites are eating my DRAM!!!
  5. Re:US Data only by Arathon · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Oh come ON. Were people like you (please, forgive the generalization, but I can't come up with a better way to put it) saying this when the NASA study came out originally? The bias you're exhibiting is much too obvious to be confused with rational, scientific thought, and it isn't helping anyone's 'cause', just or unjust.

    Also, and this is a general complaint, but...unfounded statements like "the sensor network is poorly maintained" do NOT (EVER) qualify as "Informative", unless backed up by some actual reference material. They just aren't, and it's ridiculous that there is that much blind trust here that unsupported assertions like this one get quickly accepted and praised. =P

  6. Re:Hume's Maxim by Bombula · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    If you don't think ID is complete hogwash on every conceivable level, and if you respect so-called biologists with that view, then you either aren't aware of all of the information available or don't understand the situation fully - or both (this is a kind way of saying you're either ignorant or stupid or both). Sorry fundies and moderates alike, them's the facts. If you want the open-and-closed case, just read Dawkins' stuff. If anyone wants a fuller explanation, just reply and I'll be happy to give it.

    --
    A-Bomb
  7. Re:Orson Scott Card: Laugh at Gore, Please by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Orson Scott Card, has been stirring things up recently, and makes some damning statements regarding global warming, saying it is time for scientist to abandon the faked data of the "Church of Global Warming". Let's um, consider the source, shall we? OSC writes crap like this. Exactly what qualifies him as any sort of expert on global warming?

  8. Re:Hume's Maxim by plague3106 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Didn't Bush spend 90% of his presidency up until 9/11 on vacation? And doesn't he also take quite a few vacations now? The "well deserved" part comes from EARNING the vacation, something Bush has never done.

  9. Re:US vs World by 2marcus · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Who dismissed UHI as being non-existent? It is taken into account when developing global temperature trends!

    See realclimate for a complete discussion of the subject.

    The global trend is a robust dataset, and the pattern is scientifically explainable and is not correlated with urban areas, which is what you would expect if it was a UHI effect.

  10. Re:Orson Scott Card: Laugh at Gore, Please by posterlogo · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    lol... "orson scott card" and "great analysis" go together like "michael crichton" and "sound scientific reasoning". both are pseudoscience douchebags. i used to love reading their fiction until i realized they thought they were actually scientists. unfortunately, both have done a great deal to harm public perception of science.

  11. Re:they dont have a clue by E++99 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    2006 will be a bad year for hurricanes... didnt happen

    Unexpected El Niño.

    Ah, okay. So these models can accurately predict the future state of weather systems, as long as you don't count any states that were unexpected . Impressive!
  12. Re:Orson Scott Card: Laugh at Gore, Please by 2marcus · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    1) Er. We can pretty accurately determine the direct radiative forcing impact of anthropogenic increases in CO2, which is by itself nearly 1% of solar insolation at the surface, and it would be surprising if that did NOT have a significant impact. I'm pretty sure that your body heat is nowhere near that. And there isn't any other credible non-anthropogenic forcing on that order of magnitude in the right direction in the last 50 years to explain the current warming trend.

    2) Well, we've pretty well adapted to our current climate conditions. Therefore, it is likely that any significant deviation from those climate conditions will be net negative. And we are looking (in the absence of climate policy) at a temperature change on the order of 2 degrees to 6 degrees celsius over the next century (and still rising): 6 degrees is interglacial to glacial numbers.

    3) Kyoto isn't really my plan. I have other, preferred methods. But Kyoto would be better than nothing. And yes, we can quantify the reductions that various plans would make (with uncertainty bounds, of course)

    4) Consensus is actually perfectly good science. If I go into a chemistry lab and want to take an NMR spectra of a compound, do I need to rederive fourier transforms? No? Why not? Because there is consensus out there that people have figured out how this stuff works. Now, consensus doesn't mean that you stop poking at stuff, because consensus is sometimes wrong (though rarely in a big way) and there are almost always additional details which are worth delving into. And in the case of climate change, it is a very complex system and we probably won't ever understand it completely (at least within my lifetime), so there are plenty of ways to improve our understanding by doing good science.

    5) Um. You think the ozone hole didn't exist? What planet do you live on??? Or do you use your own private definition of the term? And the scientific community never had anything like a consensus about a coming ice age - if you read the original literature there are caveats up the wazoo about it - including a lot of comments about the possibility that increasing CO2 might turn a hypothetical approaching ice age around.

    So, sorry, no, you are much more laughable than is climate science.