Global Temperature
November 11th, 2008 at 11:25 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
Click to enlarge
This is a graph of global temperature since 1979 (click the picture to enlarge). There are actually four sets of global temperatures and they don’t agree, believe it or not. Three of them are pretty similar, including this one (this is the Univ. of Alabama dataset, which is similar to the British dataset). The dataset used by James Hansen at NASA (and Al Gore) shows more warming in recent years. Looking at this graph…you certainly might have been alarmed about warming global temperatures from 1988-1998…but look what’s happened since 1998. In the last few years, world temperatures have trended downward, coincident with the solar sunspot minimum. This has political and financial implications. With certain politicians factoring in “substantial” increases in your electric bill and your heating bill to fight global warming, would the ensuing hardship to lower and middle income families really warrant that action, considering the direction global temperatures seem to be headed. This also has implications for the auto industry. With the “Big 3″ in financial difficulty, are there regulations that could be delayed to give them a better chance of survival?
Tags: global warming
Thanks Bill for bringing the global warming discussion to your blog. I have read many articles on the subject along with Craig James’ blogs and agree that the global warming issue has been brought on by people with special agendas, i.e., Al Gore & Co. I hope to find more articles from your blog on this issue and continue the fight to bring out the truth.
It seems to me that…
1)Enviromental Engineering as a whole has changed to scare the nation into funding themselves….. using unrationally confirmed data, rational data from logical engineers is over looked… because their data (realistic/actual data) only indicates a small/slight trend/tendencies and does not indicate/warrent funding.
2)Enviromentalist have an agenda….improve the quality of the planet at all cost….this leads to false data, ……air quality tests in west Michigan are a joke…the DEQ personnel tests the air were and when he/she wants too….no second opionions or witnesses….the last 20 years the DEQ has change strongly toward enviromental liberalism…the air quality of this area should be dramatically lower than past years with just our lack of driving…our plants have not been at full production, changing of clean fuels, cleaner burning electrical plants……what does the tests show not much change…..why? how can that happen?……logic says something else…..a) bad data/testing or b)the changes made were worthless endevours.
Interesting to see graphically what many have noted: the winters seem warmer than normal and summers are cooler over the past several years. Thanks for this info Bill!
Al Gore is still on the payroll of Communist China. The sooner they can shut down all industries in the West, the sooner they can dominate the global economy and and world politics.
The “Big 3″ face the same regulations and challenges as all other auto makers, they are clearly just not as efficient in meeting them. If the ‘regulations’ you are talking about are the ones proposed for fuel economy, these will have more than just environmental benefits. They will lower the demand and hence price of gasoline and reduce the US trade deficit.
Please stay politically neutral and stick to the science, otherwise people will stop believing your numbers too.
Andy, This is BILLS blog that means he is allowed to speak the truth any time he wants. If the big three were still working in a free economy and not a government controlled and regulated envionrment they could still make a profit. They are doing very well overseas where there is less government interference. Makes you think doesn’t it.
If we go thru life looking for little factoids to support our pre-conceived beliefs, how will we evolve as a race? Whatever happened to walking thru life with an open mind, a soft (but strong) heart, and callous hands. I don’t know anything for sure and certain, but I feel this way: The number of human beings on this planet even now is unsustainable – and the way we are living has had a negative impact on the planet. Not just in CO2 levels or global temperature, but also leveling the forest in favor of corn, or just putting in pavement in lieu of grassland. Do we really need someone to tell us with a chart whether or not we are affecting our environment?
I am willing to think twice before excessive consumption, and am willing to forgo some of my material ‘wealth’, in favor of some premptive notions that we may be degrading our environment. I understand the nature of human beings very well, however, and know that – when it’s all said and done – we will as a species take the path of least resistance. That said, I believe we can create the resistance needed to change thru regulation – and even profit motives.
Excellent comment Zeelander.
I highly recommend that anyone who wants to open their eyes to junk science read State of Fear by Michael Crichton. It is a novel, but an important point that he makes is that in order to get our money, the government and/or advocacy groups create artificial problems to frighten us into being happy to hand them more of our paychecks. How many times have you heard the word crisis when someone is advocating that we spend more many one whatever it is that they are advocating? Have you also noticed how it has now become “climate change” over “global warming”? Looking at the graph above tells you why-can’t fool people into believing that the earth is warming if this data gets out.
While it may be true that we are/were going through a climate change, there are plenty of scientists that disagree with the premise that mankind is the cause of it. I tend to agree with them, not because I have any training in the field, but because I will not fall for the vanity of man. We cannot do anything to make the weather the way we would like (70F and sunny, rain only during the week…), so what makes us think that we can cause a GLOBAL change?
If you look back to the time of the Vikings, Greenland was all tillable farmland near the ocean. Going back even further, evidence of tropical plants have been found on the seabed under the north pole.
Thom, thanks….I was an Enviromental Engineer and could not stomach the so called “experts in their field” data … it was full of self greed and money fishing…I still believe in a clean enviroment, I think we here in west michigan have that…Look at the grand river It is so much better than in the 40’s when my dad said it was full of raw sewage..we complain when there is even a little now..also Lake Michigan is unbelievably cleaner…my dad had to fly over it regularly during the 40’s to 60’s there was a clear blue/gray line…It was about from Muskegon to Milwaukee…It is gone…even Chicago has blue water!! The clean water act was a good thing for america…the additional added restrictions I feel are basically not cost effective and not needed.
Bill…thanks for these type of articles.
I am disheartened at the strong slant your piece has to it. As a scientist, bringing attention to the charts and interpreting the data is logical, but to move from that directly into politcal and environmental opinons is certianly not a scientific step and therefore lessens the strength of your statistical statements. To make suggestions about what we might wish to consider as next step options is quite out of your line of expertise. I had expected more from a scientific mind.
As you can see on the graph there is a cycle of ups and downs, but there was a recent up trend, although, the recent up trend has gone down, the recent up trend lasted longer than the ones in the past!!! Probably due to global warming!!!
Bill,
Your blog is too hard to get to, you should have it set up like it used to be!!!
Lisa, I think that perhaps rather than expecting more from the scientific mind you were expecting less from Mr. Steffen, who as a whole person is entitled to have and express an opinion outside of his scientific expertise without lessening the impact of that expertise. This is not a scientific journal, a weather station, or meteorology classroom. For you to question his professionalism as a scientist for expressing his opinion in an appropriate way in an appropriate forum is uncalled for. This is the United States of America and the scientists are free to have interests and opinions outside of science, and I would even go so far as to advocate they develop as much knowledge as they crave outside of the scientific community.
You have inspired me. Thank you very much. Good luck with your site