Graphic Evidence of Anthropogenic Global Warming

Global Land-Ocean Temperature Index

Exhibit #1. Global Land-Ocean Temperature Index. Source: Goddard Institute for Space Studies, via James Hansen: “The Temperature of Science.” Read it here.

Hemisphere Temperature Changes

Exhibit #2. Hemispheric Temperature Change. Source: Goddard Institute for Space Studies, via James Hansen: “The Temperature of Science.” Read it here.

Solar Irradiance

Exhibit #3. Total Solar Irradiance. Source: James Hansen: “The Temperature of Science.” Read it here.

Cherry-picking data

Exhibit #4. Cherry-picking data. Source: (Video) Creepy at the EPA. (View it here.) This chart illustrates how data can be “cherry-picked” to show almost anything one wants to show. When viewing temperature trends, it is important to look at data over long stretches of time, up to the present.

Temperature and Solar Activity

Exhibit #5. Temperature and Solar Activity. Source: (Video) Creepy at the EPA. (View it here.) This chart provides evidence that global temperatures have become uncoupled from solar activity.

El Nino and La Nina Effects

Exhibit #6. El Nino and La Nina Effects. Source: James Hansen: “The Temperature of Science.” Read it here.

Effects of Volcanic Activity

Exhibit #7. Effects of Volcanic Activity. Source: (Video) “This Year’s Model.” View it here for a full explanation. The orange represents 58 model runs, the red represents the average of those runs, and the black represents actual temperatures. Note the dips following major volcanic eruptions.

Atmospheric CO2 ppm

Exhibit #8. Atmospheric CO2 (parts per million). Source: Wired Science. Read it here.

Climate Forcings

Exhibit #9: Climate Forcings. Source: Storms of my Grandchildren, by James Hansen. Bloomsbury, 2009.

Temperature Anomalies June-August 2009

Exhibit #10: Temperature anomalies, June-August 2009. Source: National Climatic Data Center/NESDIS/NOAA. The blue dots represent lower-than-average temperatures for June-August 2009, and the red dots represent higher-than-average temperatures for the same period. (The average is taken from a 1971-2000 base period.)  Globally: August was 2^nd warmest on record. June-August was third warmest on record. Ocean: August was the warmest on record. June-August was the warmest on record. Southern Hemisphere: Warmest on record.

Temperature Anomalies November 2009

Exhibit #11: Temperature anomalies, November 2009. Source: National Climatic Data Center/NESDIS/NOAA. Compare with the previous chart. A warm summer is followed by a very warm November, including abnormally warm temperatures in North America.

Temperatures Anomalies December 2009

Exhibit #12: Temperature anomalies, December 2009. Source: National Climatic Data Center/NESDIS/NOAA. Compare with previous two charts. Unseasonable warmth in the summer and fall set the stage for dramatic winter weather. The Great Lakes were warmer because of the November weather. Cold air blowing down from the Arctic picked up moisture and dumped it as snow across the mid-West.

Ratio of record highs to record lows, 1950-2010

Exhibit #13: Ratio of record highs to record lows, 1950-2010. Source: National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Gerald Meehl of the NCAR explains: “In the last 10-20 years, there has been this ratio of about 2-to-1. For every two record high maximum temperatures, there has been only one record low minimum temperature set on average over the U.S.” If present trends continue, Meehl continues, this ratio will be about 20-to-1 by 2050, and it will be about 50-to-1 by the end of this century.

Exhibit #14: NASA dataset: Global Land-Ocean Temperature Index in 0.01 degrees Celsius, base period 1951-1980. This dataset takes the period from 1951 to 1980 as a base period from which a mean temperature is calculated. It then aggregates temperature data from 1880 to the present (April, 2010), represented as variations from the mean. For example, the best estimate for the absolute global mean for 1951-1980 is 14.0 deg-C. If the table value is “40,” that means that the change is +0.40 deg-C.  Now, look at the column labeled “AnnMean (J-D),” in the right half of the table. Notice that all the numbers are negative until you reach 1937. Between 1937 and 1980 you see a mixture of positive and negative numbers. After 1980, however, the numbers are all positive. The highest one (57) occurred in 2007 and 2009. The last four columns group the data by seasons (DJF, etc.)