A Few Things Ill Considered

This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic.

Objection:

So 2005 was a record year, records are set all the time. One really warm year is not Global Warming.

Answer:

This is actually not an unreasonable point, single years taken by themselves can not establish or refute a trend. So 2005 being the hottest globally averaged temperature on record is not convincing. Then, how about:

• every year since 1992 has been warmer than 1992
• the ten hottest years on record occurred in the last 15
• every year since 1976 has been warmer than 1976
• the 20 hottest years on record occurred in the last 25
• every year since 1964 has been warmer than 1956
• every year since 1917 has been warmer than 1917

The five year mean global temperature in 1910 was .8oC lower than the five year mean in 2002. This, and all of the above, come from the temperature analysis by NASA GISS

There is an interesting quote from that page:

Record warmth in 2005 is notable, because global temperature has not received any boost from a tropical El Niño this year. The prior record year, 1998, on the contrary, was lifted 0.2°C above the trend line by the strongest El Niño of the past century.

So, yes it is true that one record year does not make a long term trend, but that is clearly not the whole story.

This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic.

"One or Two Warm Years is not Global Warming" was first published here, where you can still find the original comment thread. This updated version is also posted on the Grist website, where additional comments can be found, though the author, Coby Beck, does not monitor or respond there.