Global Warming and CO2 Emissions Blog

Conservative columnist , Mark Steyn, published an opinion piece in the OC Register yesterday (Mark Steyn: Warm-mongers and cheeseburger imperialists) in which he uncovered the truth about global warming: the media is ignoring the fact that climate change is a hoax.

In his article, Steyn writes:

Something rather odd happened the other day. If you go to NASA's Web site and look at the "U.S. surface air temperature" rankings for the lower 48 states, you might notice that something has changed.

Then again, you might not. They're not issuing any press releases about it. But they have quietly revised their All-Time Hit Parade for U.S. temperatures. The "hottest year on record" is no longer 1998, but 1934. Another alleged swelterer, the year 2001, has now dropped out of the Top 10 altogether, and most of the rest of the 21st century – 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 – plummeted even lower down the Hot 100. In fact, every supposedly hot year from the Nineties and this decade has had its temperature rating reduced. Four of America's Top 10 hottest years turn out to be from the 1930s, that notorious decade when we all drove around in huge SUVs with the air-conditioning on full-blast. If climate change is, as Al Gore says, the most important issue anyone's ever faced in the history of anything ever, then Franklin Roosevelt didn't have a word to say about it.

The whole premise of this opinion seems to be that the lower 48 have not been as hot in the last decade as reported. But, that's not the point. No one is claiming that the temps will rise everywhere. In fact, Gore himself suggested that temperatures and climates would shift -- hotter, wetter or dryer in some places. The whole change in temperatures is only a degree or two. So, statistical variations in any given month or year would seem irrelevant.

In fact, one could argue that if global climate change is occurring and more ice is turning to water (as has been suggested), then the additional water in the ocean and air should have a moderating effect. Water has a high specific heat, so lower humidity equals greater temperature variations. I.e., there should be fewer highs and lows.

In essence, whether or not we get 100 year highs is not the point. Furthermore, the lower 48 states may or may not get new highs. This is "global" climate change, not regional climate change.

Labels: Al Gore, climate change, global warming, Mark Steyn