These Stairs Aren't Climbing -- They're Flat!

There's been quite a bit of reaction to the article published by the Economist, dated March 30, suggesting that there may be evidence that climate change has been overestimated. The data that concern those cheering the Economist writers is an apparent lack of warming since 1998 or so. Here's a video package the Economist put together about the piece. Now first it's worth pointing out that the Economist writers are far from cheery, to a one noting that climate change is happening, it's clearly related to human activity, and it requires action. But those cheering the Economist cherry pick their data, focusing only on one piece that quotes NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies head James Hansen noting "the five-year mean global temperature has been flat for a decade." Fortunately the nice thing about these webs is that as soon as people start making claims based on such quotations, responses emerge including clarifying data and context. This one, by Weather Underground cofounder Jeff Masters , does a masterful job of explaining how the data show the climate warming in something like a series of steps, as clearly presented by the site Skeptical Science.   [More]