Thursday, October 28, 2010

Stuffed warmists


An interesting development here with the launch of a campaign, ostensibly to overturn the Cleggeron "green" targets. Amongst other things, they are putting tests to the warmists, challenging them to prove ten points. Interestingly, one of those they want the warmists to prove is: "Data recorded by ground-based stations are a reliable indicator of global surface temperature trends".

Actually, I think we've all missed a trick here. How can atmospheric temperature ever be suitable for measuring global warming – i.e., increase in global heat? That is rather like putting a dipstick in your car tank, in order to measure the amount in the tank at your local petrol station.

The point, of course, is that temperature is only a proxy for heat if you are measuring a known, stable quantity. And since air only holds a fraction of the heat held by the oceans – and we have no reliable way of determining the average temperature of the global water mass, we have no way of calculating the total heat - much less the degree to which it has changed.

That alone rather stuffs the warmists, although such niceties will hardly bother them. This has never been about science.

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