Saturday, July 18, 2015

2014 was the hottest year on record, and other subversive claims

Just in case you don't trust the global warming statistics of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (that hotbed of dissent, radicalism and revolution), a report just out from the US's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed, in the latest edition of their annual State of the Climate report, that 2014 was the Earth's warmest year on record.
Based on contributions from 413 (probably subversive) scientists from 58 countries around the world, and produced in partnership with that other bunch of extremist agitators the American Meteorological Society, the Report covers many different trends and indicators of the global climate system, including: various types of greenhouse gases; temperatures throughout the atmosphere, ocean, and land; cloud cover; sea level; ocean salinity; sea ice extent; and snow cover. The latest Report is the 25th annual, and so provides a good basis for comparison.
Among other findings the Report concludes that:
  • 2014 was the warmest year on record, based on four independent global datasets of temperatures near the Earth's surface;
  • concentrations of the major greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, reached historic high values and continued to rise during 2014 (CO2 reached a global average of 397.2 ppm in 2014, compared with a global average of 354.0 in 1990);
  • the globally averaged sea surface temperature was also the highest on record (i.e. the highest in 135 years), and was particularly notably high in the North Pacific Ocean;
  • likewise, the upper ocean heat content reached a record high (oceans absorb over 90% of Earth’s excess heat from greenhouse gas forcing);
  • global average sea level rose to a record high in 2014, some 66 mm above the 1993 average level, continuing the 3.2 ± 0.4 mm per year trend in sea level increase observed over the past two decades;
  • the number of tropical cyclones in 2014 was well above the average (91, compared to the 1981-2010 average of 82 storms per year), and the 22 named storms in the Eastern/Central Pacific were the most to occur there since 1992.
On almost the same day as this Report was published, I notice that The Libertarian Republic website reported a study from the University of Alabama which purports to prove that "the Earth will be entering its 22nd year without statistically warming trend", based on satellite data from a particular group of Remote Sensing Systems.
Well, I think I know which source I would rather trust...

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