Befuddled Warmist Richard Muller Declares Skeptics Should Convert to Believers Because His Study Shows the Earth Has Warmed Since the 1950s! — Climate Depot Responds

Climate Depot Editorial

[For updates on Richard Muller, check out the new Climate Depot Muller page here.]

Berkeley University Professor Richard A. Muller is a very confused man. Muller is claiming in a October 21, 2011 OPED that skeptics of man-made global warming fears no longer have any basis to doubt “global warming” because his new study confirms that the Earth has warmed since the 1950s! Muller seems to imply that the terms “global warming” and man-made global warming are interchangeable and any warming is somehow “proof” of human causation.

Muller is being described by many in the media — including NYT’s Andrew Revkin – as being a climate “skeptic.” But clearly, Muller must not have gotten the memo, as he is lustily referring to skeptics as “deniers” in his media blitz. See: Richard Muller: ‘The deniers pay no attention to science’

Muller’s WSJ OPED is designed to confuse the public with perhaps some of the most banal and straw man arguments yet put forth by a global warming activist. Muller ([email protected]) in his OPED and in his spin to the media, is implying that warming somehow equals human causation. But the climate debate has not centered on whether the Earth has warmed since the end of the Little Ice Age about 1850 or since the 1950s. The climate debate is about how much humans may or may not be contributing to the warming trend. (and the science and data is solidly favoring skeptics.) [Note: The highpoint of global temperatures is still 1998 and any claims of 2005 or 2010 being the “hottest on record” are laughable and ‘purely political.” See Climate Depot’s analysis: 2010 tied for ‘hottest’ year?! Relax, it is ‘purely a political statement’ — Even NASA’s Hansen admits it is ‘not particularly important’ — Prof. mocks ‘hottest decade’ claim as ‘a joke’ — ‘Claims based on year-to-year temp data that differs by only a few HUNDREDTHS of a degree’]

Muller’s study is already being met with massive scientific blowback from his colleagues. See: 1) Climatologist Dr. Pielke Sr. On Muller’s study: ‘Unless, Muller pulls from a significantly different set of raw data, it is no surprise that his [temp] trends are the same’ 2) Meteorologist Watts: The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project puts PR before peer review… making a ‘pre-peer review’ media blitz despite errors 3) Physicist Dr. Lubos