Both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration firmly concluded that last year beat out 2010 and 2005, the previous years that had held the title of warmest since methodical record-keeping began in 1880. ... Ever since, there’ve been salvos from critics decrying the definitiveness with which both agencies summarized the 2014 findings (each agency had a distinct methodology and slightly different conclusions).
I talked about this yesterday on Brian Lehrer’s radio show, making the point that it’s a distraction to focus on records — as the media and elected officials tend to do — given how year-to-year differences in global temperature are measured in a few hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit, and given the implicit uncertainty in such measurements. You can listen here.
Such fights divert attention from long-term trends...
