Thursday, October 27, 2011

Global Warming Confirmed by Doubters

A lot of non-believers and doubters of Global Warming have been raising that the information provided by the United State's NASA and NOAA are not accurate. Several claims have been raised such as that the data might have been manipulated since the data isn't open, that several instruments for measuring temperature are either very old or are using an old technology, and that the measurements may be an effect of urban heat island effect (urban areas are hotter because of the concrete and other factors).

The doubts and arguments of the non-believers have paved way for a new research to ensue, this time assuring that a more reliable data gathering and data evaluation methods and algorithms are used, and that the data remain open. This new initiative is called BEST or Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project (http://berkeleyearth.org/) or more known as Berkeley Earth. The group's goal, as stated in their website, and I quote:

Our aim is to resolve current criticism of the former temperature analyses, and to prepare an open record that will allow rapid response to further criticism or suggestions. Our results will include not only our best estimate for the global temperature change, but estimates of the uncertainties in the record.

 The result of Berkeley Earth's research didn't seem to be far away from the results that NASA and NOAA published. In fact, it even strengthened the claim of many that the world is indeed warming. The urban heat island effect didn't really have that large an effect on global warming, since all the urban areas combined only makes up a small percentage of the rural and undeveloped areas.


Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15373071
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/20/global-warming-study-climate-sceptics
http://berkeleyearth.org/

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