THE BEST DATA SHOW NO RECENT RISE AT ALL IN GLOBAL TEMPERATURE

And even crooked science cannot make it

Those awkward satellites: "A study of global temperature data in the May 5 issue of Nature claims to solve a discrepancy between surface-station temperature readings and global temperature readings taken from orbital satellites. Experts reviewing the Nature study, however, say it fails to impugn the satellite readings. Ever since the first temperature-reading satellite was launched in 1979, scientists have tried to explain the discrepancy between satellite and ground-based readings of global temperatures." Satellite readings have shown virtually no warming trend since 1979, while ground-based readings have registered significant warming.

According to scientific studies, the discrepancy results from an urban heat island effect. Concrete, factories, office buildings, and automobiles produce heat in and around cities, causing temperatures to be somewhat warmer than the surrounding region. Moderate warming trends at land-based weather stations, typically located at airports in and around growing cities, merely reflect the growing population of the nearby city, studies show.

The recent Nature study attempts to contest the urban heat island evidence and cast doubt on the satellite readings. To support their theory, the study's authors introduced a "fudge factor" that attempts to explain and dismiss a significant amount of documented atmospheric cooling. The fudge factor, say experts, is where the Nature authors go wrong.

"You can't subtract more signal than is there, but that's what they've done," said Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist in the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The problem, said Spencer, is that the study's fudge factor removes more stratospheric cooling than actually appears in the data, thus creating a spurious warming signal.

"Simply put, this method overcorrects for stratospheric cooling," said Dr. John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science at UAH and director of the ESSC. "We tried this same technique in the early 1990s but it didn't work. "This kind of mistake would not get published with adequate peer review of manuscripts submitted for publication," observed Spencer.