My denial is this big
Tony Abbott has stated a very simple fact that many others do not have the guts to state: the world has not warmed significantly since 2001, and may have even cooled. There seems nothing particularly controversial about that statement. The temperature data shows it clearly (if you look at the satellite record and ignore the surface record with its convenient manual “adjustments” that always seem to be upwards, that is). Even the Climategate emails acknowledge it – remember the quote “we can’t account for the lack of warming”?
But Penny Wong, the person most intimately acquainted with the ETS and climate change policy in Australia, just cannot deal with facts. Neither can enviro-loony Bob Brown, and both resort to spin and obfuscation in response. First off, here’s the Wong-bot:
“He is out there publicly talking about the world cooling when we have so many world leaders … going to Copenhagen because they are concerned about climate change,” she said.
“We see Mr Abbott talking about the globe cooling as the rest of the world is trying to work its way to tackling climate change.”
A gobsmacked [“gobsmacked”? Fine journalism there from Fairfax- Ed] Greens Leader Bob Brown said Mr Abbott’s comments would alienate conservatives.
“In a world where both big and small business understand the science of climate change and the need for appropriate action,” Senator Brown said.
Wong and Brown can’t handle the truth that the planet hasn’t warmed for a decade – in other words, they’re in denial.
Read it here. (h/t Andrew Bolt)
Australian Climate Madness 
This recent ABC report appears to imply that the last decade has been
warm. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/09/2765726.htm “… research from the World Meteorological Organisation shows that the past decade has been the warmest since records began 160 years ago.”
Is the ABC report wrong or am I misinterpreting what they or you are saying?
The present decade will be warmer than the 90s, although there has been no statistically significant warming since 2001. But this is what we would expect, as the planet recovers from the Little Ice Age. Temperatures will in all probability continue to rise due to natural causes – the effect of CO2 however is another question – although the sun is entering a period of extreme quiet. The next few years will be interesting.
It’s always interesting to view these statistics “in context” (I’ve heard that somewhere before…)
1998 was an exceptional El Nino year, as was 2005 (being 0.03C warmer than 1998). Since then, 2006 and 2007 have been cooler than 2005, and 2008 has been cooler than 2006.
See it here (this is NOAA data – and they are no skeptics):
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/index.php?report=global&year=2008&month=ann
To say that “the past decade has been the warmest since records began” is basically an obfuscation to hide the (obvious) decline. And as Simon points out – 2008 is exactly level with 2001.
It’s probably easier to give people a pre-digested sound bite like that than to trouble them with all that messy data to think about.