Guest essay by Larry Hamlin

The L A Times published an Editorial shown below that falsely represented the year 2022 climate outcomes based on their articles science data unsupported climate alarmist propaganda claim that the world is heading toward a climate disaster. 

“You can’t say the 2022 climate data coming out is surprising. But it sure is alarming.

U.S. federal agencies last week reported that 2022 was either the fifth or sixth hottest year on record, depending on the accounting method used. The 10 warmest years over the last 143 years have all occurred since 2010. Another study showed the amount of heat being taken up by Earth’s oceans reached another record high last year.”

The Times climate alarmist propaganda editorial fails to present or even discuss relevant measured climate science data that display the most significant year 2022 climate science measured data outcomes. 

NOAA’s Climate at a Glance website provides a detailed look for the years 2016 and 2022 of the behavior of global average temperature anomaly as shown below with these results hyped by the L A Times article as “alarming.”

The actual land-based NOAA measured global average temperature anomaly data shows that between the year 2016 when climate alarmist propagandists declared a “climate emergency” and the end of year 2022 the measured global average temperature anomaly declined at a rate of -1.37 Degrees C per century. This embarrassing outcome to climate alarmism political propaganda enthusiasts is concealed by the L A Times from its readers.

Additionally, the Times falsely promotes the flawed and failed politically contrived claim that CO2 emissions are dominant in controlling global temperature behavior and urges the usual alarmist demand that:  

“Leaders at all levels of government will need to keep slashing pollution as quickly as possible, or the nation will have no chance of cutting climate-warming emissions in half by 2030, as Biden has pledged under the international Paris climate accord.”

“Earth is already about 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was in the late 19th century, and we are continually at the precipice of greater suffering and loss.”

“The data highlight the immense disconnect between the symptoms our overheating planet is showing and what we are doing about the problem.”

NOAA’s measured global average temperature anomaly science data shown below (under the Greenhouse Gases section heading) indicates that while global atmospheric CO2 levels continued to climb upward over the last 60+ years (including the “climate emergency” period over the last 7 years between 2016 and 2022) the NOAA measured global average temperature anomaly trend declined at a -1.37 degrees C rate during this interval where the Times says we must “keep slashing pollution as quickly as possible” to avoid “the precipice of greater suffering and loss.”

The UAH satellite measured climate global average temperature anomaly data shown below with measurements from year 1979 more clearly displays the disconnect between the upward climbing global atmospheric CO2 levels and the measured global average temperature anomaly science data which has a declining trend for the period between 2016 and 2022 of -2.2 degrees C per century. Again, the L A Times conceals from the public measured climate science data which is contrary to its contrived climate alarmist propaganda agenda.

Additionally the interval of a zero global average temperature anomaly trend extends back to the mid 2014 time period representing an interval of nearly 8.5 years of no increasing global average temperature anomaly trend. 

Data from land based global average temperature anomaly measurement and satellite global average temperature anomaly measurement systems show that during the last 7 years of the declared “climate emergency” the global average temperature anomaly trend is declining at a rate of between -1.37 to -2.2 Degrees C per century with the climate alarmist propaganda driven L A. Times concealing these climate science measured data outcomes from the public.

Furthermore, this measured science data shows that there has been no increasing global average temperature anomaly increasing trend for nearly the last 8.5 years during the climate alarmist hyped “claim emergency” period.  

NOAA also has measured average temperature anomaly data for the contiguous U.S. from its USCRN network of specially sited temperature measurement stations (stations that meet NOAA standards for siting to preclude spurious heat sources from impacting measured data) that represent the most accurate U.S. temperature anomaly measurement system data that went into operation in 2005. This U.S. average temperature anomaly data is shown below which shows the contiguous U.S. is not experiencing increasing temperature anomaly trend outcomes during this period as hyped in the L A Times editorial.

The L A Times further noted comments about the Earth’s oceans as shown below. 

“Even more unrelenting is the data from Earth’s oceans, which are bearing most of the load of humanity’s production of greenhouse gas pollution by absorbing more than 90% of the warming. Ocean heat, which fluctuates less than air temperatures, has set a consecutive string of records. The rise in ocean temperatures has accelerated since about 1990 and “is so steady and robust that annual records continue to be set with each new year,”

The most accurate and complete measurement for Ocean depths temperature data is obtained by use of the fleet of robotic instruments that drift with the ocean currents and move up and down between the surface and mid-water level that began operation about the year 2000. This system called the Argo system measures data over the ocean depths from about 1900 meters depth to the top 100 meters with that data at various depths shown below (under the Oceans section heading) from about year 2004.

As noted in the summary statement below (under the Home section heading) the outcome of these measurements relative to ocean temperatures is as follows:

“Since 2004 the global oceans above 1900 m depth on average have warmed about 0.07 degrees C. The maximum warming (about 0.2 degrees C 0 -100 m depth) mainly affects oceans near the Equator, where the incoming solar radiation is at maximum.” This measured 0.07 degrees C global ocean temperature increase over the period from 2004 to 2020 is what the L A Times editorial ridiculously characterizes as “unrelenting” ocean warming. 

The L A Times fails to provide the public with important scientifically measured global average temperature anomaly data or significant measured temperature data for the global oceans obtained from the Argo system.

Also completely missing and concealed from the Times flawed climate alarmist editorial is the fact that year 2022 was a debacle of failed claims that hurricanes would occur at above “normal” levels as addressed in the article shown below.

The Times editorial also failed to address the below average occurrence of U.S. tornadoes during year 2022 as shown below from NOAA’s website which also shows that during the 18 year period displayed 13 of the years were below average with only two outlier above average years that occurred 12 to 15 years ago. 

The Times claimed that “data highlight the immense disconnect between the symptoms our overheating planet is showing and what we are doing about the problem” but presented no data and in fact concealed highly relevant climate science measured data from public view in its editorial with that hidden data unsupportive of its climate alarmist propaganda distortions and deceptions.            

“If that is any indication of what’s to come, House Republicans will try to obstruct climate action instead of acting to protect the American people from an existential threat that’s growing worse by the year. That means state and local efforts to cut emissions will be more important than ever, just as they were during the Trump presidency.”

Hopefully the Republican House can preclude the implementation of the massively costly and completely unnecessary politically contrived climate alarmism schemes hyped by the Democrats and the L A Times with their climate alarmist claims unsupported by climate science measured data that is concealed from the public.