Collegiate Times

With temperatures in the upper 90s the last few weeks and several strong hurricanes having recently churned through the Caribbean, global warming alarmists continue to sound off and sympathetic voices in the media.

All of this while they are ignoring the simple truth that summer is suppose to be hot, continue to spin tales of unprecedented extreme heat, drought and climate upheaval to further the agenda. In light of this warm weather, let's examine a few stories concerning climate change you probably didn't hear about this summer.

Recently NASA was forced to admit that data it collected showing global temperatures rising since the 1990s - data seized upon by warming alarmists to validate their claims - was inaccurate. Thanks to the efforts of man-made global warming skeptic Stephen McIntyre, the type of person typically dismissed by alarmists as a flat-earther, we now know that the distribution of the warmest years on record is dramatically different than previously thought.

Contrary to claims of alarmists including Al Gore, 1998 is not the warmest year in U.S. history. NASA now acknowledges that 1934 was the warmest year in U.S. history. Four of the top 10 warmest years in history are 1934, 1931, 1938 and 1939. Three of the top 10 occurred within the last decade, including 1998, 1999 and 2006. Many years, including 1900, were warmer than recent years.

Characteristically, proponents of man-made global warming theory dismiss this inaccuracy as insignificant. The results are very significant, however, because alarmists have employed the same temperature calculations from the last decade in support of man-made global warming. Even more significant than warmists now downplaying these records, is the fact that some of the warmest readings ever recorded occurred in the first half of the 20th century - before the predominance of technologies cited for releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants blamed for global warming.

Another interesting story ignored by the press involves the temperature measurement stations throughout the nation, known as the U.S. Historical Climate Network. Operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, measurements from these stations are used to compile global average surface temperatures constructions used in climate studies like the one released by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change earlier this year.

For the sake of reliability and scientific integrity, shouldn't NOAA want researchers to examine the location and condition of temperature collection sites around the nation? One would think so, but instead they have attempted to block such efforts - seemingly to avoid embarrassing revelations about HCN sites rife with errors both in placement and instrumentation.

Some photos have been obtained documenting the sites, and some of these would be completely comical if they weren't providing flawed data used in advancing global warming theory. 

One photo shows a temperature-measuring instrument located in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. In this photo, the temperature measurement device is shown mounted immediately next to a brick house, a few feet above an asphalt driveway, and directly above a barbecue grill. Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute put it best when he commented on the photo, saying, "Next time you hear of a heatwave in Hopkinsville, KY, you might just wander over to grab a burger. More likely than not the boys are just having a cookout."       

Another photo of a site in Tahoe City, California shows a temperature-measuring instrument placed several feet away from barrel used for burning trash. Several photographs show measuring stations located in close proximity to air conditioning units.

Based on photos obtained by the Web site surfacestations.org, problems like these are not rare. These problems are significant and call temperature measurement data into question since U.S. temperature-measurement sites are typically viewed as the most accurate in the world.

Given stories like these, policymakers, scientists and voters should challenge those who wish to end debate and declare consensus on an issue that is far from settled. Is it possible that those interested in so-called science, are really more interested in advancing an agenda than doing the hard work of actual science?

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