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Thank you for the data, but it brings up a big question for me. How do they boil down "Global Temperature" to a single number from 1880 to 2014? In 1880 there

by 300bps 12y ago

Thank you for the data, but it brings up a big question for me. How do they boil down "Global Temperature" to a single number from 1880 to 2014? In 1880 there were only 38 states and the Statue of Liberty hadn't been delivered yet for 5 years. Today they have temperature sensors in Antarctica, the North Pole, Alaska, Utah, the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the middle of the Pacific Ocean, etc, etc. Did they have these same sensors in 1880? In 1900? In 1920? Where is the data that shows the constituents of the "one true number" that claims to stretch over a period of 134 years?

ch4s3 12y ago
You know the phrase "The sun never sets on British soil"? Well that dates to the 18th Century, and they we measuring temperature everywhere they were. True, expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic were later, but they also recorded temperature. So, the record, while incomplete, is pretty good.
- 300bps 12y ago
  So, the record, while incomplete, is pretty good. Do you have any evidence of this claim? Specifically, do you know where I can find the formula used to calculate the global temperature and the constituent temperature readings, locations and time/dates? Common sense says that such readings would be spotty at best and also that they would be incomparable between 1880 and 2014 but since they are comparing them I'm very curious of their methodology. EDIT OK I found what claims to be the source code of the software that massages the numbers here: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/sources/ http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/sources/ EDIT2 OK I found the underlying data here: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/station_data/ http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/station_data/ It's exactly what I thought. Hardly any of the stations go back to 1880 and the ones that do are unbelievably spotty with sometimes two years or more of missing data. Oh and they're apparently not even measurements - they're "reconstructions". And apparently they re-adjust these reconstructions all the time. (see http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/09/nasas_rubber_ruler.html#ixzz27YZRxqIW http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/09/nasas_rubber_rul...) The environment would be much better off if we stopped pretending we know things we don't and just agree that it is stupid to squander a finite resource like fossil fuels and start conserving it.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  That's because god doesn't trust the British in the dark.

by 300bps 12y ago

ch4s3 12y ago

You know the phrase "The sun never sets on British soil"? Well that dates to the 18th Century, and they we measuring temperature everywhere they were. True, expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic were later, but they also recorded temperature. So, the record, while incomplete, is pretty good.

300bps 12y ago
So, the record, while incomplete, is pretty good. Do you have any evidence of this claim? Specifically, do you know where I can find the formula used to calculate the global temperature and the constituent temperature readings, locations and time/dates? Common sense says that such readings would be spotty at best and also that they would be incomparable between 1880 and 2014 but since they are comparing them I'm very curious of their methodology. EDIT OK I found what claims to be the source code of the software that massages the numbers here: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/sources/ http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/sources/ EDIT2 OK I found the underlying data here: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/station_data/ http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/station_data/ It's exactly what I thought. Hardly any of the stations go back to 1880 and the ones that do are unbelievably spotty with sometimes two years or more of missing data. Oh and they're apparently not even measurements - they're "reconstructions". And apparently they re-adjust these reconstructions all the time. (see http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/09/nasas_rubber_ruler.html#ixzz27YZRxqIW http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/09/nasas_rubber_rul...) The environment would be much better off if we stopped pretending we know things we don't and just agree that it is stupid to squander a finite resource like fossil fuels and start conserving it.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
lotsofmangos 12y ago
That's because god doesn't trust the British in the dark.