Josh is Blind

Excerpts from "The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat, by Richard Harris"

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when it comes to global warming. In fact, 80 percent to 90 percent of global warming involves heating up ocean waters. They hold much more heat than the atmosphere can. Since the system was fully deployed in 2003, it has recorded no warming of the global oceans.

"There has been a very slight cooling, but not anything really significant," Willis says. So the buildup of heat on Earth may be on a brief hiatus.

"Global warming doesn't mean every year will be warmer than the last. And it may be that we are in a period of less rapid warming." Trenberth and Willis agree that a few mild years have no effect on the long-term trend of global warming.

My comment: Josh must be a true believer in global warming. Otherwise he would allow the possibility that a slight cooling of the oceans is a precursor to global cooling. But, no, he suggests that "we are in a period of less rapid warming," after saying that "the oceans are what really matter when it comes to global warming." Josh can't read the handwriting on the wall.

Let's looks at some recent air temperature data. New global surface temperature data has recently been released from the UK Hadley Climate Research Unit, and it shows a significant drop in the global temperature. The January 2008 temperature has dropped 0.595°C (that is 1.07°F) compared to January 2007. The chart below shows that data expressed as an "anomaly" relative to a baseline.