Despite hysterical alarmist claims of man-made global warming and climate change, the data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows the US in a steady cooling trend.
NOAA typically releases data only after “adjusting” it, with the adjustments nearly always making the warming trend seem more pronounced. Previously they have been caught manipulating data from as far back as the 1930s to make it seem hotter in modern times.
The raw data, though, is available on NOAA’s website – and it paints a starkly different picture from the public narrative.
Meteorologist Anthony Watts, curator of the popular climate site Watts Up With That, compiled the raw data from NOAA’s US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) and graphed it. The trend is undeniable: The US has been cooling for the last ten years.
The USCRN data comes from a series of over 140 temperature stations scattered throughout the US. These stations are NOAA’s premier data collection method, with a mission of collecting data that doesn’t “need” adjustment to provide accurate information. According to NOAA boss Tom Karl:
“These stations were designed with climate science in mind. Three independent measurements of temperature and precipitation are made at each station, insuring continuity of record and maintenance of well-calibrated and highly accurate observations. The stations are placed in pristine environments expected to be free of development for many decades. Stations are monitored and maintained to high standards and are calibrated on an annual basis.”
In other words, the USCRN is the star in NOAA’s lineup, even though the agency never mentions the raw data from the network in their regular reports on the climate.
Despite the obvious and gaping holes in the climate change narrative, the true believers are still charging full speed ahead. The latest public figure to throw his hat into the ring on behalf of climate hysteria is Pope Francis, who issued an encyclical today calling for global action to end climate change.
The irony of the Pope coming down on the side of climate alarmism is particularly delicious, since the climate change pushers have long denied that their fervor resembles organized religion. Many on the left proudly proclaim that environmentalism is incompatible with religion, and now religion has officially joined them.
So here we are again, with more evidence that the “settled science” is in fact bogus science. That doesn’t seem to bother President Obama, who said on May 20th that global warming is a clear security threat to the United States, and on Tuesday promised a series of executive actions to promote “green” energy in an effort to combat climate change.
Like the rest of the climate alarmist crowd, the President refuses to learn the lessons of past failures like Solyndra, and insists we must continue to tilt at the global warming windmill – even though the government’s own data says the warming isn’t happening.