Reported global temperatures suspect

There is an old saying that figures lie and liars figure. This seems to be the case with the available data on global mean temperatures measurements.

NASA data purports to show that from 1880 to 2016, the global mean temperature increased 1.0 degree (C). A steep incline is shown between 1995 and 2016 of 0.5 degree (C).

As an engineer, I ask, “How can these data be accurate?” There has to be enormous measurement errors. Standard mercury thermometers are hard to read to one decimal point and they do not have a means to record when the temperature reached its peak.

More significantly, stations measuring temperatures around the world have been few and far between. The estimated (NASA) number of stations rose from 200 in 1880 to 1,000 in 1980. In 1995, sea surface temperature data was used for the first time.

One could construe that the temperature of the Earth increased as the number of measurement stations increased. The error range of the data in the period between 1880 and 1995 far exceeds the projected temperature increase.

The European Space Agency stated, “Using satellites to observe Earth is the only way of providing the scientific community with the data they need to improve our understanding of the Earth system.”

Measurements prior to 1995 (and the use of satellites) are highly erroneous, manipulated and unusable — so flawed it is asinine to use them for policy purposes. The “figures” can be used to say anything. That’s exactly how they have been used in the Paris climate farce.

This story was originally published July 2, 2017 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Reported global temperatures suspect."