I looked over the author’s 2018 paper which is linked in the press release and I think he pretty squarely addresses the issues you raise. In particular, check o

I looked over the author’s 2018 paper which is linked in the press release and I think he pretty squarely addresses the issues you raise. In particular, check out figure 1B in that work for one particularly clear signal of change over time that is so obvious it doesn’t need a statistical test. I say this as an environmental statistician who normally raises these types of issues.