But the earth is getting warmer, about one degree warmer since the beginning of the century. First, U.S. temperatures have remained flat over the last 80 years. Blaming weather events in the U.S. on warming on a global scale is just plain silly. Summer global temperatures this year have been below normal, according to satellite temperature measurements. Third, highlighting record-breaking weather events exhibits a profound ignorance of statistics.
Extreme weather is a statistical certainty.
Finally, at a convention of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics in Birmingham, England, climate modelers Barrie Hunt and Anthony Hirst with the Mebourne-based Division of Atmospheric Research of Australia s national research organization, revealed the results of a new climate model. What they found was that even with stable CO2 levels the climate system is very chaotic. This year s summer weather has been a major topic of discussion in the national press. Heat waves and drought conditions have certainly been unpleasant this year, but they are hardly the stuff of apocalyptic dimensions, and it certainly isn t because of global warming. It s the pattern of drought that is unusual.