Global warming cannot be real because some places, like Louisville Kentucky, have experienced no temperature increase at all. Fact: It’s true that some places, like Louisville, haven’t experienced a rise in temperature. Others, however, have had very large increases. The temperature in Sao Paulo, for example, has risen by about 2°C since the beginning of the 20th century – almost double the global average. Cherry picking data from individual locations doesn’t give us the big picture. We have to look at the global average. 

Temperature data is inaccurate because we don’t have good enough technology to measure the Earth’s surface, the oceans, the stratosphere or the troposphere. So, these cannot be relied on as indicators of global warming. Fact: First, let’s deal with the slight fall in global temperatures that occurred in the 1950s and 60s. This was caused by increased particulate matter (sulfate aerosols) in the atmosphere, due to unregulated industrialisation. This particulate matter reflected some of the sun’s rays away from the Earth, causing a small amount of cooling. When, for health reasons, nations introduced laws in the 1970s mandating a reduction in industrial pollution, the quantity of particulate matter decreased significantly, and global warming resumed as predicted. [It should be noted that increased particulate matter resulting from greater volcanic activity after 1257 AD is believed to have been the main factor triggering the so-called ‘Little Ice Age’ (1450-1850 AD), which caused a noticeable drop in temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. The drop in global temperatures, however, was nowhere near as significant – somewhere between 0.2°C and 0.6°C from the peak of the Medieval Warm Period (900-1150 AD).] As for the temperature ‘pause’ that occurred between 1998 and 2005, this was really only illusory, as 1998 was an exceptionally hot year. Has it not been so hot, the temperature record would have been broken several times during that seven-year period.  And once the 1998 record was broken, new records have been set regularly over the next two decades – first in 2010, then every couple of years, and now almost every year. By way of comparison, global temperatures rose by an average of 0.07°C each decade after 1880. The most recent decade (2010-19), however, saw an increase of 0.39°C – five and a half times the historical average. The warming trend is clear, and very worrying.  

Temperature data is inaccurate because we don’t have good enough technology to measure the Earth’s surface, the oceans, the stratosphere or the troposphere. So, these cannot be relied on as indicators of global warming. Fact: Temperature measurements are not perfect but provide a very good picture of general trends. These all show significant warming. Interestingly, climate sceptics were happy to use temperature measurements when they thought they showed a fall in global temperatures or, at best, a temperature pause. This was the case in the seven years following 1998, when the temperature record was not broken till 2005. Since then, however, records have been broken repeatedly, so climate sceptics have become hostile to the very idea of measuring global temperatures.  It’s the same with climate models. Sceptics use them when they confirm their own views, but reject them when they don’t.