1 The Temperature Record Is Unreliable

Temperature graphs from land based weather stations show a rate of temperature increase that is not supported by data from weather balloons and satellites measuring the temperature in the upper atmosphere.

A study of temperature increase relies on access to reliable temperature data. However, a study in 2009 by the Heartland Institute showed that almost 90% of all US weather stations as set up by the National Weather Service are in urban heat islands. Urban areas are, on average warmer than rural areas. Asphalt absorbs and subsequently radiates a lot of heat, urban buildings generate a lot of heat. This trend is repeated in countries around the world.

Worldwide it is almost impossible to guarantee the accuracy of data – poorer countries do not keep complete records. Two thirds of the weather stations operating in the 1970s are still working today (the collapse of the Soviet Union shut down half the weather stations in the world). This means that it is impossible to create an accurate comparison of temperature records today and temperature records in the past. To deal with these problems climate change scientists apply adjustment algorithms but as we have seen above climate algorithms are notoriously unreliable. Tests have shown that these adjustments are ineffective and fail to remove ‘contamination’ in the results.

Richard Linzden of MIT wrote in 2008 that there had been ‘no global warming since 1997 and no statistically significant warming since 1995’. However, Global Warming (or climate change as it has increasingly been referred to in order to combat the problem of a recent stall in the warming trends) has been politicized to such an extent that it is a multimillion dollar industry. It is accepted by most mainstream media as fact – dissenting views are marginalized with ‘health warnings’ if they are allowed at all. Scientific debate is often shut down with personal attacks made on scientists who speak out against the orthodox climate change.

The global temperature and carbon dioxide levels have fluctuated in the past and the current temperature is not unusual in a historical context. While the rate of temperature rise may correlate with the atmospheric levels of Carbon Dioxide correlation is not causation and no research to date has been able to prove a causal link. Solar activity also correlates almost precisely with global temperature rises for recent decades – this activity is completely independent of human activity.

The results of much of the research into global warming through history and its potential causes today show that the Earth regulates its temperature through a complex interrelationship of many different processes. From the levels of water vapor to ocean currents, orbital oscillations to solar activity these are processes over which man has no control. We do not, as yet, have the technology to model these effects with any accuracy. We can predict weather for up to five days in the future but all attempts to predict any longer term changes in weather or climate have proved futile.

The models used to predict climate change in the future have been shown to have been developed using unreliable proxy data and flawed temperature records. When these models are applied to scenarios we know in detail from the past they fail to give the correct results. These models quite simply don’t work and any research based on them is subsequently just as flawed.

The science on global warming is not ‘settled’. What is needed is strong rigorous research on warming and all possible causes – such research should be without bias. Science is only impoverished when it is politicized for specific goals.