The WMO states that: “Global temperatures in 2008 are expected to be above the long-term average. The decade from 1998 to 2007 has been the warmest on record, and the global average surface temperature has risen by 0.74C since the beginning of the 20th Century.” None of these statements contradicts Will’s claim that there has been no “recorded” warming in a decade. They essentially dodge the issue of the recent trend. Will addresses that trend, not the consistently high values over that time. Nor do these statements by themselves support the WMO’s opening sentence, “The long-term upward trend of global warming, mostly driven by greenhouse gas emissions, is continuing,” at least, not over the most recent decade.

The WMO states that: “While important uncertainties still remain, the overwhelming global scientific consensus, as reflected through the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, is now that the Earth’s atmosphere is warming at an increasing rate and that most of this warming is very probably due to human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning and certain agricultural practices. It is also recognized that, while these changes are just beginning, their impacts will intensify in the coming decades.”

This represents a scientific consensus on future expectations. As such it does not contradict Will’s claim regarding “recorded” warming over the last decade. Will, like many of his ilk, is exploiting the acknowledged fact that with the extraordinary El Nino year of 1998 and natural climate variations since then, there has been little net warming over the past decade. This is supported by WMO statistics. A qualified fact checker would find Will’s statement to be essentially correct. The point is, it’s highly misleading. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to counter that observation, except by waiting for the long-term background trend to resume its march upward. And that could be some years away.

Tom

This is not science, even though it has a wafer thin resemblance to the scientfic method. A scientist goes where the data takes them. Any idea can be overturned or amended, given enough evidence.

The political deniers will not be swayed by evidence. They seize upon the supporting evidence and totally discount contradicting evidence.

Go ahead and debate away. Use your scientific methods and instincts. Just remember that only scientifically minded people will give you a fair hearing. The deniers are playing a political game, and can only be defeated politically.

The “acid rain hoax”?

Are you actually tyring to claim that because the regulation of specific sulfur- and nitrogen-based industrial waste products has worked to reduce acid rain in the US that the whole thing was a hoax?

You should tell that to Eastern Europe, China, and Southeast Asia; they’ll be delighted to hear that the acid rain they’re still getting hit with is just a “hoax.”

It will have to become overwhelming before you lunitics will give your lies, but, just as the acid rain hoaxed passed, so will the global warming hoax.

Gee, are these hoaxes like the HIV/AIDS hoax, the cigarette smoking/lung cancer hoax, the Holocaust hoax, the CFCs/ozone depletion hoax, the moon landing hoax? End snark.