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Global Warming is Real

7/03/2013 02:07:00 PM
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Not to sound like a highway bill board.

But seriously, Quartz delivers the evidence in a particularly persuasive graphic:
Interestingly, it appears that the second world war had a big impact on global temperatures, since 1941-1950 had higher temperatures than the following couple decades.
C. E. W., III 8/15/2013 10:49:00 PM

Does the graphic really support the claim "Global Warming is Real"? In the graphic, the difference in temperature between the coldest and the warmest decade is only 0,88 deg. C. Isn't that within the margin of error?

Even if it's correct, which it may well be; a temperature increase of less than 1 deg. C in the course of 100 years seem trivial to me.

Perhaps we instead ought to discuss why global temeratures changes so slowly and modestly...

And perhpaps you ought to change the description of the graphic to, for instance, "a somewhat persuasive graphic".
Matthew Martin 8/16/2013 06:51:00 AM
It is definitely statistically significant--not within the margin of error--though that's not really clear from the graph (perhaps some error bands would help?). It is also a significant change for the environment, which is pretty sensitive to temperature changes. Keep in mind that any change in global mean temperature is going to be concentrated at the polls, so we are talking about significant increases in ice melt.