Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
10. Global temperatures and carbon dioxide changes for the last 20,000 years
(2) Every data set showing global warming has been corrected or tweaked to achieve this desired result.
For people who are not regularly involved in science, this seems to be the biggest problem
with the whole 'climate change has happened' argument. As shown above, all the climate
data sets covering the last 150 years require some sort of adjustment. This, though, is part
of the scientific process. For example, if great care had not been taken over the spurious
trends in the global precipitation database we would now assume that global precipitation
was increasing. Moreover, as science moves forward incrementally, it gains more and
more understanding and insight into the data sets it is constructing. This constant ques-
tioning of all data and interpretations is the core strength of science: each new correction
or adjustment is due to a greater understanding of the data and the climate system, and
thus each new study adds to the confidence that we have in the results. This is why the
IPCC report refers to the 'weight of the evidence', since our confidence in science in-
creases if similar results are obtained from very different sources.
