Scientists refute EPA administrator's testimony
Scientists say global warming is not leveling off.
In a report published in January by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Scott Pruitt, administrator of the EPA, said, “I am aware of a diverse range of conclusions regarding global temperatures, including that over the past two decades satellite data indicates there has been a leveling off of warming, which some scientists refer to as the ‘hiatus.’”
But scientists publishing research in the journal Nature Scientific Reports write that this is not true: “Satellite temperature measurements do not support the claim of a 'leveling off of warming' over the past two decades."
The scientists examined satellite estimates of global changes in the temperature of the mid-to-upper troposphere (TMT). In each of the data sets, "all 20-year TMT trends are positive, irrespective of the trend start date.”
The trend of tropospheric warming becomes even clearer during a 38-year period of TMT measurements.
“Our results support and strengthen previous findings of a large human-caused contribution to warming,” the scientists wrote. “Studies involving patterns of tropospheric temperature change (rather than the global averages considered here) yield even stronger evidence of a human fingerprint in the thermal structure of the atmosphere. The recent focus on satellite temperature data in political discourse provides an opportunity to highlight this fingerprint evidence, and underscores the importance of continued satellite-based monitoring of Earth’s climate.”
The research is titled, "Tropospheric Warming Over The Past Two Decades." The lead author is Benjamin D. Santer, Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Inter-Comparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California.
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