affect on global temperature, we'd begin the process of installing accurate sensing devices using some logic in their placement now. We'd begin recording now rather than try to use old data with equipment that may or may not be accurate to the tolerances we want to see. It makes no sense to think we can be accurate to the tenths and hundredths of a degree without using some scientifically controlled method. We know that the deep ocean also plays a role in global temperature. We also have considerable evidence that the earth has been through a number of warming and cooling cycles of varying intensities before and during man's time. What I'm seeing mostly is an opportunity for politicians to use this data as a prediction of doom if we don't elect them to office. They've run out of real reasons to keep themselves employed by the taxpayer. There can be no doubt that the temperature on our earth has been perfectly stable for its entire existence. We need to learn to live with that knowledge and try to enjoy the short time we have here.
I am one of those who believe that humanity and it's industrial, farming, social and other excesses are affecting global temperatures.
However, when I read things like "The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever", (MSN via "The Telegraph" UK newspaper), even I have to consider what we are being told.
Figures often speak for themselves; but if those figures are being manipulated then they are worthless. Who, then, do we trust?
Mark

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