Friday, December 14, 2007

Neal Boortz versus the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Neal Boortz: "[T]he Earth has actually cooled somewhat during the last three years, and considering the fact that there has been no appreciable warming for ten years."

NOAA:
The global annual temperature − for combined land and ocean surfaces – for 2007 is expected to be near 58.0 F – and would be the fifth warmest since records began in 1880. Some of the largest and most widespread warm anomalies occurred from eastern Europe to central Asia.

Including 2007, seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997. The global average surface temperature has risen between 0.6°C and 0.7°C since the start of the twentieth century, and the rate of increase since 1976 has been approximately three times faster than the century-scale trend.

The greatest warming has taken place in high latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Anomalous warmth in 2007 contributed to the lowest Arctic sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979, surpassing the previous record low set in 2005 by a remarkable 23 percent. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, this is part of a continuing trend in end-of-summer Arctic sea ice extent reductions of about 10 percent per decade since 1979.

And

Severe to exceptional drought affected the Southeast and western U.S. More than three-quarters of the Southeast was in drought from mid-summer into December. Increased evaporation from usually warm temperatures, combined with a lack of precipitation, worsened drought conditions. Drought conditions also affected large parts of the Upper Midwest and areas of the Northeast.
That one is particularly of relevance seeing as Neal Boortz is located in Atlanta, Georgia, which happens to be experiencing a severe drought. So while Atlanta is running out of water as a result of a drought exacerbated by warming, Boortz is on the radio telling his Atlanta audience that global warming is a socialist hoax.

As Neal Boortz likes to point out, he is very well paid to run his mouth on the radio about things of which he has no clue what he's talking about. No one fact checks him. He is under no obligation to be factually accurate. This is considered balancing the "liberal media"? Only in the sense that lies "balance" truth.

Island of Doubt has more info on the 2007 temperatures.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like the argument of focussing on global warming obliquely. While I believe the probability of it occurring is very high, there is no denying that we are not getting anything done trying to convince a skeptic nation about the science (they have the luxury of pulling out BS, and calling it facts, a la Mr Boortz).

It might be a good idea to focus on all the images of rivers being poisoned, acid rain destroying forests, etc. Black smoke coming out of these huge factories, with little towns with children playing next to it, smog in big cities.

If you cant convince them intelligently, use pictures, like you do for preteen kids. That might be the only thing that works.