Comments on: What does “Global Warming” mean?

By: Global Warming Over The Next Decade: Candidates take note. – Greg Laden's Blog

Fri, 08 Jan 2016 19:31:18 +0000

[…] reality of warming in the near future. The long term rise in surface temperature, which is what we usually refer to when using the term “Global Warming,” is not steady and smooth, but instead, it is rather squiggly. But the ups and downs that accompany […]

By: Global Warming Could Make Peat Bogs Less Of A Carbon Sink – Greg Laden's Blog

Wed, 02 Dec 2015 17:24:22 +0000

[…] See: What does “Global Warming” mean? […]

By: Biophilia Vs. Biophobia | earthandbodyblog

Biophilia Vs. Biophobia | earthandbodyblog — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 01:02:15 +0000

[…] http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2015/06/07/what-does-global-warming-mean/ […]

By: Update on climate models and heat waves – Greg Laden's Blog

Update on climate models and heat waves – Greg Laden's Blog — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 17:31:25 +0000

[…] the warming is observed. We measure warming in several parts of the Earth’s surface. (See “What does “Global Warming” Mean?) One is surface temperatures at about head height, over land, via a gazillion weather stations […]

By: This Global Warming Advertisement Will Make You Think Twice

This Global Warming Advertisement Will Make You Think Twice — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 15:01:53 +0000

[…] Featured Image – scienceblogs […]

By: No Rest for the Warming – Page 3.14

No Rest for the Warming – Page 3.14 — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 16:59:01 +0000

[…] warming “hiatus” or “pause” that since 1998 has supposedly invalidated scientific consensus and its models of climate change. Clearer and more clever heads have renamed the hiatus a “faux pause,” playing off the […]

By: How Warm Was May? – Greg Laden's Blog

How Warm Was May? – Greg Laden's Blog — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 16:11:50 +0000

[…] Either way you look at it, surface temperatures are rising. What does that mean? This. […]

By: The Fun Police

The Fun Police — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 08:13:19 +0000

Thanks, great overview.
Complementary to this, I covered some of the issues of skeptics’ way of dealing with climate change data on http://www.funpolice.eu

More specifically:
https://oehscience.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/a-tale-of-immigration/
https://oehscience.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/a-tale-of-climate-change-a-tale-of-immigration-part-2/

By: John Alldis

John Alldis — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 06:31:04 +0000

So at long last the lemmings begin to recognize the edge of the precipice approaches. Still a couple of missing factors;: we have passed the ‘400’ now comes the effects of Oceanic Acidification! Suck it up fools

By: zebra

zebra — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 10:39:06 +0000

Brian,

The remainder of what you say continues the error of thinking of GMST as a “cause”.

Will an increase “cause” humidity to rise? No, because as with the temperatures that can be hot in Alaska and cold in Boston or vice versa, we can have higher air temperatures above the desert/ocean and colder over the ocean/desert. Same GMST, different humidity, or different GMST, same humidity.

How then can we say it is a “cause”?

Now, will the humidity rise? Of course. But that will be caused by local increases in energy, acting on the local system. In some cases, increased evaporation could precede increase in air temperature. Think about the arctic summer, when the temperature is very constrained but the ice is crazy melting.

Why is it important to maintain such strong discipline with the language? Again, because people are easily misled– oversimplification and analogizing are the tools of the propagandist. At this point, I bet most people think that “trying to stay below 2C” means everything will be fine until we get to that temperature. Only then will the ice sheets crash, crops fail, and so on. Because GMST will be the “cause”. Arrgh.

I will refrain from talking about the electricity stuff unless you really want to defend it. I’ve had to un-teach people who picked up various misconceptions from those kinds of analogies, and it is far more work than trusting them to understand correctly in the first place.