But over the weekend, NASA was forced to revise its findings after fellow blogger Steve McKintyre, of climateaudit.org, found a glaring Y2K bug in the methodology that led to them. Now the inconvenient truth is that:
– The hottest year on record is 1934, not 1998;
– The third hottest year on record was 1921, not 2006;
– Three of the five hottest years on record occurred before 1940; and
– Six of the top 10 hottest years occurred before 90 percent of the growth in greenhouse gas emissions during the last century occurred.
Meanwhile, forcing my global-warming adversaries to eat even more crow, a DC resident also made news over the weekend for “discovering” a 1922 Washington Post article entitled “Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt”. Because this article is prima facie evidence that today’s authors of similar headlines are not only ignorant alarmists but also unwitting plagiarists.
Nevertheless, I feel constrained to note that I published the following a year ago this month in an article entitled …My final word on global warming:
As much as you may believe that last week was the hottest on record; in fact, that dubious distinction dates back to 1922 – decades before global warming became the yuppie political spawn of hippie self-consciousness.
Therefore, with all due respect to McIntyre and others, I’ve been challenging the junk science of environmental Cassandras for years.
That said, I also feel obliged to admonish global-warming disciples about their predilection for proselytising the notion that those of us who challenge their false prophecies are anti-environment.
After all, I have been exceedingly critical of profligate rich people who leave their grossly-disproportionate carbon footprints all over the world; and of cruise ship operators who pollute the pristine waters of the Caribbean; and of oil and lumber companies that are still razing what little remains of the Amazon rainforest, etc, etc.
But I’ve always directed my most ardent criticism at the hypocrisy of jet-setting, fossil-fuel gluttons – like environmental prophet Al Gore – who show no scruples about rebuking poor people throughout the Third World for burning coal for electricity.
Furthermore, I was a bona-fide environmentalist when Gore was still the proud heir to a sprawling tobacco farm. But my environmentalism was inspired by the common-sense understanding that we cannot continue dumping non-biodegradable crap on our planet, where landfills are replacing arable land at an alarming rate.
By contrast, I’m so indignant at global-warming disciples because of the way they ape fundamentalist preachers (who incite fears about burning in hell to get people to believe in God) by inciting fears about melting snow caps and glaciers flooding the planet to get people to respect the environment.
NOTE: As we engage in political debates about global warming, I am mindful that the Balkans are sweltering under an unprecedented heat wave that has already killed hundreds of people and thousands of animals, and is igniting forest fires that are threatening more lives, livestock and property throughout the region.
Yet I hasten to disabuse anyone of the inclination to blame global warming for these soaring temperatures. Because similar heat waves have plagued every region of the world – as part of Mother Nature’s cyclical pattern of extreme weather phenomena – since the beginning of time.
Alas, some countries have far greater resources at their disposal than others have to help their people cope. And nothing demonstrates this fact quite like the way the heat has caused thousands of casualties in Romania; whereas, a similar heat wave now scorching the mid-section of the United States has had (relatively) little impact.
END NOTE: I truly intended the above-referenced article to be my last word on this topic. But then I realized that, if I abided by my pronouncement, I would deprive all new visitors to my weblog of my antidote to (the still-contagious) global-warming fever….
Related Articles:
My final word on global warming
Mother Nature makes global warming seem like a flaming hoax
warmest year global warming
Anonymous says
ALH, we’ve had this discussion before, but I’ll repeat myself again. It’s not about the single hottest year on record (yes, those “environmentalists” who use scare tactics are no different then right wing homophobics) … it’s about the average global temperature over a 5 or 10 year moving window. There will always be extreme events, but what we’re experiencing is a CONSTANT increase that is partly due to the long term climate cycle and partly to anthropogenic activity. How much of each is being debated. -Ravic
ALH ipinions says
Ravic
By citing the following, I’d say I anticipated and effectively rebutted your reference to “a 5 or 10 year moving windon” as well as your specious insinuation of a causal link between “anthropogenic activity” and global warming:
“Six of the top 10 hottest years occurred before 90 percent of the growth in greenhouse gas emissions during the last century occurred”
But thank you for your comment.
Anonymous says
ALH, have you read the responses to McKintyre climateaudit blog since Wednesday? I just read an LATimes piece (8/15) and it turns out that 1934, a dust bowl year, is indeed the hottest year on record in the US (by 0.04F), but 1998 and 2005 remain the hottest years on record globally. 4 out of 10 hottest years in the US occurred in the 1930’s (perhaps due to mismanagement of ecosystems?). However, since the discussion here is about global warming, I think you owe it to your readers to point this out, because your blog now seems quite misleading. -Ravic
Anonymous says
hey ravic, try reading the friggin article before writing you’re stupid comments.
tim / nyc