Cooling off the Global Warming Hype

Continued cold weather this winter is even causing the keepers of the AGW flame to take notice. The NY Times puts out a pro AGW CYA memo, printed to look suspciously like a news story, which in short says "Pay no attention to the thermometer, its not meaningful to the global warming debate.":

The world has seen some extraordinary winter conditions in both hemispheres over the past year: snow in Johannesburg last June and in Baghdad in January, Arctic sea ice returning with a vengeance after a record retreat last summer, paralyzing blizzards in China, and a sharp drop in the globe’s average temperature. ...

According to a host of climate experts, including some who question the extent and risks of global warming, it is mostly good old-fashioned weather, along with a cold kick from the tropical Pacific Ocean, which is in its La Niña phase for a few more months, a year after it was in the opposite warm El Niño pattern.

The cold spell doesn't debunk the whoe AGW theory, what it debunks is the unserious hysteria that blames every hurricane and warm spell on 'global warming'. If mere non-AGW weather is responsible for cooling, then it goes without saying that non-AGW weather can be responsible for the warming and extreme weather events. Prior extremes have been used to 'baseline' the amount warming observed, and this recent cooling helps correct the over-estimates many from such skewed data points.

The threat has been postponed until next season due to inclement weather.
There is nothing so sad as to see a beautiful theory torpedoed by an ugly fact.