Re: [Phys-l] Poll shows fewer Americans "believe" in global warming

[marx@phy.ilstu.edu]

The issue is with the corrections that have been made to the historical data set.  Some of the 
corrections make sense, like time of day.  Some of the corrections are questionable in terms of the 
size and direction of the corrections.  The hisotrical data is largely incomplete worldwide and 
measurements were made inconsistenly using a variety of measurement methods.  In recent decades 
a network of temperature monitoring stations has been set up, but little care has been taken in their 
placement, which has been embarrassingly documented on nurmerous websites.  Therefore, it's hard 
to put much confidence in the reported temperatures at show a few tenths of a degree variation when 
the errors may be larger than are ever discussed.

There is so much more to this than I can communicate here.  I do recommend that people look more 
deeply into what historic and current temperature data is available, how it was collected, and what 
subsequent corrections were made before the final graphs were made.  It's an interesting study in data 
handling and analysis.  This is imperative as we try to understand what is happening with the Earth's 
climate.  Do not simply look at the published graphs, but also at the methology (as we do with 
everything else in science) to determine validity.  We all know that there is much political manipulation 
in this area, so it is perhaps more critical to be critical.



On 23 Oct 2009 at 15:35, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:

> Odd statement. 
>
> Why are they questionable? Don't they come from the correct denomination?
>
> Bob at PC
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of marx@phy.ilstu.edu [marx@phy.ilstu.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:44 PM
> To: Forum for Physics Educators
> Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Poll shows fewer Americans "believe" in global warming
>
> The problem is that you cannot simply look at this data and draw a conclusion
> because the sources of data and corrections made to that data are highly
> questionable.
>
>
> > I'd like to encourage people to look at the data, and forget the talking heads
> > on this issue.
> >
> > Here's some data that are worth looking at.  Draw your own conclusions.
> >
> > http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/
> >
> > Mark Shapiro
> > ________________________________________
> > From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
> > [phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of Bernard Cleyet
> > [bernardcleyet@redshift.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 4:52 PM
> > To: Forum for Physics Educators
> > Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Poll shows fewer Americans "believe" in global warming
> >
> > You have some?
> >
> > bc has book w/ some simple models.  (Tung, Topics in Mathematical
> > Modeling)
> >
> >
> > On 2009, Oct 22, , at 13:52, marx@phy.ilstu.edu wrote:
> >
> > > and computer modeling
> >
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