--by Horatio AlgeranonGlobal Warming stopped,
In 1998.
It's pointless to even argue,
There's really no debate.
The temperature back then,
Was higher than today.
We're headed for an ice age,
What more is there to say?
This claim seems to be the favorite of those who deny the reality or seriousness of human-caused climate change. The latest invocation -- that "there has been no net global warming since 1998"-- comes from some folks who should certainly know better, among them some professional statisticians.
From a statistical standpoint, there are several very serious problems with the claim that render it essentially meaningless. Tamino explains these in detail on "Open Mind".
Basically, it is difficult if not impossible to conclude anything at all about a temperature trend simply by taking the net difference between the temperature at the ends of the time interval --1998 and today-- particularly when there have been so few intervening years.
But one need not know anything at all about statistics to see the basic problem: 1998 was unusually warm because of a particularly strong El Nino that year and the temperature naturally dropped down some after El Nino passed.
