Re: “No pause in global warming,” March 5.
This article tells us that the past 18 years have shown some warming; therefore, climate-change doubters should change their tune and believe in the climate apocalypse to come.
As the article notes, Remote Sensing Systems, a satellite-based temperature-monitoring agency, has found a warming of 0.1 degree Celsius between 1998 and 2016. This might not be a complete “pause,” but it is also considerably less than the warming that should have occurred if the climate models of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were correct.
The IPCC’s latest report (AR5) predicts warming of between 1.1 C and 0.41 per decade. The RSS study shows warming of only 0.1 for the past 18 years, or about 0.06 per decade. There is a major discrepancy between the models and reality, which means the models are faulty.
Meanwhile, a paper published in February in the journal Nature Climate Change (authored by, among others, “hockey stick” creator Michael E. Mann, an avowed anti-skeptic) notes: “It has been claimed that the early-2000s global warming slowdown or hiatus, characterized by a reduced rate of global surface warming, has been overstated, lacks sound scientific basis, or is unsupported by observations. The evidence presented here contradicts these claims.”
In other words, carbon dioxide levels have been increasing steadily, and there has been some warming. But even orthodox climate scientists like Mann admit that warming has not kept pace with the model predictions. Until the models prove their worth as oracles, I suspect most skeptics will continue to have little confidence in the IPCC or its doomsday predictions.
Paul MacRae
Victoria
