I wish to give todays ignorant right wing conservative douche bag of the year award to the less than honorable Sen. Joe Barton (R) of, you guessed it, the *sarcasm* environmentally friendly and not so oil rich state of Texas *sarcasm*.
In this article on Think Progress, Barton goes on to say how he would block any efforts to control green house gas emissions because…
Barton says his action is justified because global warming science is “pretty weak stuff.” Barton added, “But for us to try to step in and say we have got to do all these global things to prevent the Earth from getting any warmer in my opinion is absolute nonsense. It’s not going to happen.”
“Ah pesky climate science, you and your bastard cousin evolution are constantly getting in the way of the ignorant thoughts of God fearing men and women around the world. Next you’ll tell me that we all descended from apes or parameciums or something. Now, go get my illegal immigrant maid to bring me a double martini while I go vote on a flag burning amendment, yehaw!” - Imagined quote of the “Honorable” Sen. Burton, not actually known to have been said
———– Read More: Below the fold ——————-
Of course, pesky science does get in the way. Historical reconstruction of temperature data goes back, with some confidence, around a thousand years. An interesting chart displaying this can be seen below.
Source: Michael Mann image, news@nature.com And before you argue about the science behind the chart too much, check out this.
Here is my quick interpretation of the graph. The early data (to the left) shows higher uncertainty because of the data because of the wide variety of sources, and the relatively lower accuracy of the measurements. As we move to the right, the uncertainty of the measurements decrease so the gray bands “tighten”. By the time we reach the late 1800s, the confidence is much higher. Temperatures are rising, significantly.
But hey, don’t take my word for it, we can look at a simple summary of the general review of this climate data summarized by
National Research Council Report
At the request of the U.S. Congress, a special “Committee on Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Past 2,000 Years” was assembled by the National Research Council’s Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. The Committee published its report in 2006. [24] The report summarizes its main findings as follows:[25]
- The instrumentally measured warming of about 0.6°C during the 20th century is also reflected in borehole temperature measurements, the retreat of glaciers, and other observational evidence, and can be simulated with climate models.
- Large-scale surface temperature reconstructions yield a generally consistent picture of temperature trends during the preceding millennium, including relatively warm conditions centered around A.D. 1000 (identified by some as the “Medieval Warm Period”) and a relatively cold period (or “Little Ice Age”) centered around 1700. The existence and extent of a Little Ice Age from roughly 1500 to 1850 is supported by a wide variety of evidence including ice cores, tree rings, borehole temperatures, glacier length records, and historical documents. Evidence for regional warmth during medieval times can be found in a diverse but more limited set of records including ice cores, tree rings, marine sediments, and historical sources from Europe and Asia, but the exact timing and duration of warm periods may have varied from region to region, and the magnitude and geographic extent of the warmth are uncertain.
- It can be said with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries. This statement is justified by the consistency of the evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies.
- Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from A.D. 900 to 1600. Presently available proxy evidence indicates that temperatures at many, but not all, individual locations were higher during the past 25 years than during any period of comparable length since A.D. 900. The uncertainties associated with reconstructing hemispheric mean or global mean temperatures from these data increase substantially backward in time through this period and are not yet fully quantified.
- Very little confidence can be assigned to statements concerning the hemispheric mean or global mean surface temperature prior to about A.D. 900 because of sparse data coverage and because the uncertainties associated with proxy data and the methods used to analyze and combine them are larger than during more recent time periods
There is of course room for debate on the causes of warming, but the fact that there is serious warming outside the norm is tough to argue against. And warming is going to cause all sorts of problems for us. For a great starting point to learn more, check out this great wikipedia article.
