Updated 1/20/13
Here are two new, excellent short videos (about a couple of minutes or so each) that explain (a) how global warming due to anthropogenic greenhouse gases is happening in parallel with natural variability of temperature due to factors such as volcanic eruptions (e.g., El Chichon and Pinatubo) and oceanic oscillations (e.g., El Nino and La Nina) and (b) how the average temperature derived from various paleoclimatic temperature proxies (e.g., ice cores, corals, etc.) are positively correlated with thermometer-based temperature records.
The video explaining natural versus human contributions to climate change is the one below from the outstanding blog Skeptical Science, and discussed in posts such as this one "16 More Years of Global Warming". Also worth reading are related posts from the last couple of years:
- "Why Wasn't The Hottest Decade Hotter?" by Rob Painting at Skeptical Science
- "Resolving Confusion Over the Met Office Statement and Continued Global Warming" by Dana Nuccitelli at Skeptical Science
- "Did
global warming stop in
1998,1995,2002,2007, 2010?" at Skeptical Science - "Video And Charts Make Clear The Planet Is Still Warming — And There’s Only One Way To Stop It" by Joe Romm at Climate Progress
A broad team including several universities and NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) just published this paper - Global warming in an independent record of the last 130 years (David Anderson et al.) - in Geophysical Research Letters and a discussion of their paper at the NOAA website - "Independent Evidence Confirms Global Warming in Instrument Record". Skeptical Science also has some analysis and discussion of this paper at "Nature Confirms Global Warming and Temperature Record Accuracy". An additional resource worth reading is this 2006 report by The National Research Council of the National Academies - "Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years".
Here is a short video summarizing the results:
Additional posts definitely worth reading as we enter 2013 are below.
- "Contrary to Contrarian Claims, IPCC Temperature Projections Have Been Exceptionally Accurate" by Dana Nuccitelli at Skeptical Science
- "Visualising the role of natural variability" and "What will the simulations do next?" by Ed Hawkins at Climate Lab Book
- "Communication of the role of natural variability in future North American climate" by Clara Deser et al. in Nature Climate Change [also see this paper]
- "2012 in Review - a Major Year for Climate Change" by Dana Nuccitelli at Skeptical Science
- "NOAA And NASA: 2012 Warmest ‘La Niña Year’ On Record, Sustaining Long-Term Climate Warming Trend" by Think Progress
- "Sun and climate moving in opposite directions, says leaked IPCC report" by John Cook at Skeptical Science
- "Top Ten Global Weather Events of 2012" by Dr. Jeff Masters at the Weather Underground (Wunderground) blog
- "Appendix: The Science of Climate Change" in the "Federal Advisory Committee Draft Climate Assessment Report Released for Public Review"
- "Global Carbon Budget" (detailed version here)
Happy New Year!