Yes, the earth is still warming despite tortured interpretations of today’s IPCC report!

Has the earth stopped warming? You might think so, reading or listening to climate skeptics putting their unique spin on the 5^th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that is scheduled for release today.

It will say that global surface warming has slowed since the last assessment released six years ago. Kind of like easing up on the accelerator.  That’s really all the skeptics (we’re being kind, and not using the term ‘deniers’) need to crank up the disinformation campaign that has been so effective at creating doubt among the public about the reality of climate change.

So when you hear these folks on the radio or see them on the hopeless editorial page of the Detroit News, here are a few relevant pieces of data that you can be sure they will ignore:

— The draft states that the rate of surface warming from 1998-2012 was 0.05 degrees. The earth is still warming.

— August, 2013 was the 342^nd consecutive month!  with global surface temperatures above 20^th century averages.

— The oceans, which hold roughly  93% of the earth’s trapped heat, have warmed dramatically , including significant warming at depths below 700 meters – a development unprecedented in the last 50 years.

— Sea ice continues to shrink, despite what you may hear from data cherry pickers about a growing Arctic ice cap. More good stuff debunking the junk science on polar ice here.

— Finally, we give you Dr. Patrick Michaels, the climate skeptics’ go-to source for bashing the IPCC report. Dr. Michaels, unlike most other skeptic darlings, is an actual climatologist. In 2008, he addressed a Heartland Institute audience of climate skeptics, and in an unusual moment of candor warned them against using the “no global warming since 1998” argument, because, frankly, it was indefensible. You can hear him in this video starting at about the 1:20 mark. Or just take our word for it: “You’ve all seen articles saying global warming stopped in 1998. With all due respect that’s being a little bit unfair to the data,” Michaels says. The largest El Nino – bubbling up of heat stored in the ocean – in recorded history occurred in 1998, skewing global temperatures upward. Cherry picking 1998 is indefensible, said Michaels: “I want to tell everybody in this audience, make an argument that you can get killed on, and you’ll kill us all.”

Clearly, the skeptics are not even listening to their own scientists. Surprised?

Thanks to Peter Sinclair of Climate Crock for compiling much of this information.

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