Ouch; No global warming for 16 years

A new report from the British weather service’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research and Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Britain, indicates that there has been no global warming since 1997.  From 1997 till now, the temperatures have remained stable, which is about the same length of time that the warming trend from 1980 till 1997 occurred.

 

Prior to this temperatures had been stable or declining for about forty years.  In uncharacteristic fashion, this one was quietly released online with no accompanying press release.  Normally new research results are presented to a fanfare, massive publicity and were it possible, a triumphal march of the climate scientists.

Phil Jones though insists that despite the sixteen years of rising temperatures being a clear indication that the earth was in an uncontrollable greenhouse warming and that unless we submitted to everything the greenies demanded of us we were all going to be cooked, the sixteen years of stable temperatures is too short a period to provide convincing evidence: 

The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week.  The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures. 

This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years. 

The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued  quietly on the internet, without any media fanfare, and, until today, it has not been reported.  This stands in sharp contrast  to the release of the previous  figures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year. 

Ending the data then means it is possible to show a slight warming trend since 1997, but 2011 and the first eight months of 2012 were much cooler, and thus this trend is erased.Some climate scientists, such as Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, last week dismissed the significance of the plateau, saying that 15 or 16 years is too short a period from which to draw conclusions. 

Others disagreed. Professor Judith Curry, who is the head of the climate science department at America’s prestigious Georgia Tech university, told The Mail on Sunday that it was clear that the computer models used to predict future warming were ‘deeply flawed’. 

Even Prof Jones admitted that he and his colleagues did not understand the impact of ‘natural variability’ – factors such as long-term ocean temperature cycles and changes in the output of the sun. However, he said he was still convinced that the current decade would end up significantly warmer than the previous two. 

The regular data collected on global temperature is called Hadcrut 4, as it is jointly issued by the Met Office’s Hadley Centre and Prof Jones’s Climatic Research Unit.  Since 1880, when worldwide industrialisation began to gather pace and reliable statistics were first collected on a global scale, the world has warmed by 0.75 degrees Celsius. 

Some scientists have claimed that this rate of warming is set to increase hugely without drastic cuts to carbon-dioxide emissions, predicting a catastrophic increase of up to a further five degrees Celsius by the end of the century. 

The new figures were released as the Government made clear that it would ‘bend’ its own carbon-dioxide rules and build new power stations to try to combat the threat of blackouts.  

At last week’s Conservative Party Conference, the new Energy Minister, John Hayes, promised that ‘the high-flown theories of bourgeois Left-wing academics will not override the interests of ordinary people who need fuel for heat, light and transport – energy policies, you might say, for the many, not the few’ – a pledge that has triggered fury from green activists, who fear reductions in the huge subsidies given to wind-turbine firms. …

It is reasonable to assume that this report will make little difference in the way we see things happening; the manner of its release is designed to ensure it receives as little oxygen as possible.  There are now whole industries designed around the modern form of carpet bagging based on the global warming theme and these have a powerful lobby.  Thousands if not millions of professional people have invested their future in this scam.

The killer is that governments worldwide have an enormous amount of political capital invested in harvesting the moral authority that this cause gives them.  In short; they have painted themselves into a corner and either can’t, wont, or cannot afford to withdraw from their positions.  Once a party accepts an idea into its ideology, facts become an unwelcome distraction.

Do not expect to see headlines anytime soon saying:

Gillard moves to repeal carbon tax

Apologizes to Abbott over calling him a troglodyte for saying “GW is bulls**t