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01.27.2015 0

2014 not so hot of a year, satellites confirm

By Rick Manning

global temperatures“I am embarrassed by the scientific community’s behavior on the [human driven climate change] subject.”

That is just one of the jarring remarks by climate scientist Roy Spencer, PhD.  Spencer in his must read response to those who claim that 2014 was the warmest year on record.  For much of his career, Spencer was the Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he and Dr. John Christy received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for their global temperature monitoring work with satellites.

It is his work and the satellite data that gets ignored which remains one of the legions of global warmists biggest problems.  Dr. Spencer, a climate scientist with impeccable credentials utilizing state of the art temperature gathering readings, challenges the prevailing assumptions of looming global warming devastation based upon the observable science.

Satellite monitoring of global temperatures which are not distorted by local changing ground effects like fixed monitoring stations (e.g. a concrete building that radiates heat being built next door) show that 2014 was not close to being the warmest year since 1979 when satellites first started collecting data.  Instead, satellites show 1998 and perhaps 2010 as having that distinction.

Spencer does not deny that some temporary warming is occurring but points out that there is, “abundant evidence that it was just as warm 1,000 and 2,000 years ago as it is today.”

A harsh slap in the face to those who want to lay blame for some future catastrophic climate collapse on modern fossil fuel usage.

Why would so-called scientists ignore satellite data that conflicts with ground temperature monitoring?  To get an idea, take a look at what the satellites say is actually occurring with our climate.

Note that the baseline temperature is a constant, not an upward sliding scale, and while in the past sixteen years, temperatures have been warmer than the mean, the previous nineteen years (when the global warming hysteria began) show an earth that was uncooperatively cool.

If the question is simply, was the earth warmer in 2014 than in 1980, the answer is yes, by .32 degrees Centigrade or .90 degrees Fahrenheit.  But what cannot be said in good faith based upon the satellite data, which I repeat is not impacted by local temperature altering factors like ground measurements, is that there is the building block accelerated increase in the earth’s temperature that is the basis for warming alarmists.

What’s more, the continued and undisputed record growth of sea ice in Antarctica puts the claim that the science is settled on what is happening to the planet’s climate into further question.  If air and water temperatures were rising in a noticeable way, Antarctica’s sea ice extent should be receding, but instead it is expanding dramatically.

Hardly the behavior that those who have reaped billions of taxpayer dollars studying the climate ominously predicted would occur.

However, as Dr. Spencer bemoans, “In climate science, whichever side is favored by politicians and journalism graduates is the side that wins.

“And what about those 97 percent of scientists who agree? Well, what they all agree on is that if their government climate funding goes away, their careers will end.”

Just another example of government begetting more government, and as the created crisis demands more regulatory encroachments to meet the challenge, it needs even more grants to justify the dramatic economic hardships that are imposed on American citizens.

A vicious cycle that is designed to lead to economic deprivation in America as our nation’s wealth is redistributed to those nations not suffering under the same strangling rules all under the green cover of “saving the planet.”

Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.

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