Evidence? What Evidence? – 2

Now that we’re into 2010, perhaps we can look back at the past decade and check out the competing claims on the subject of climate change. Just what can we glean from the first decade of the new millennium? Is the trend one of warming, or, as some have been asserting recently, cooling? Well, as with any controversial subject, it depends on who you’re asking. Let’s start with those who take their data seriously.

And there can be no more serious player here than the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), who have stated unequivocally that January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest decade on record.



[Source: NASA GISS]

An isolated case? Not so. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has also concluded that the past decade was the warmest on record.

Is this just a USA-centric view? No it isn’t: our own Met Office has also concluded that the past decade was the warmest on record. And, just for emphasis, the World Meteorological Organisation has come to the same conclusion.

Perhaps these organisations are trying to tell us something.