Temperatures (archive)

IN 2017, I published an article in the journal GeoResJ with John Abbot. This has been the subject of a misguided campaign, specifically to discredit our findings that much of the global warming through the 20th Century is natural. We recently responded to some of the criticism by way of a detailed report: ‘Historical Temperature Reconstructions and Estimating the Contribution of the Industrial Revolution to 20th Century Warming’. In due course, this will be developed into a publication.

Also, for some years I have been pointing-out that there is no consistency in the methods used by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to measure surface temperatures, and that the routine remodeling of temperature series by the ACORN-SAT unit within the Bureau is not scientific.

1. I’ve provided details in letters to various Ministers, including, for example, this letter sent to Simon Birmingham in 2014.

2. I’ve also sent letters to Auditors and Chief Scientists, for example, this letter sent to Alan Finkel in 2018.

3. I’ve also published my concerns in popular magazines, including this article, published by The Spectator online in 2017.

I’ve no doubt that one day there will be a proper enquiry, and my efforts will be vindicated. In the meantime, no one in a position of authority is willing to acknowledge the extent of the problem or its implications. We have a long history in Australia of ignoring such evidence, and then holding Royal Commissions at which everyone shakes their heads and suggests that it was appalling the abuse – that was allowed to happen for so long despite all the evidence from the whistleblowers.

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The following information focuses principally on the issue of homogenization, and has not been updated for some years, but there are useful links…

MY submission requesting that the Australian National Audit Office undertake a performance audit of the procedures, and validity of the methodolgy used by the Australian Burea of Meteorology in the construction of the official historical temperature record for Australia can be downloaded here.

In February 2016, I gave a presentation to the Liberal Democrats National Conference entitled ‘Why we should rally against homogenization, and I don’t mean of milk’. The text and charts have been turned into a blog post, and can also be downloaded from this link.

I also explained how the Australian Bureau of Meteorology remodel the historical temperature record in a presentation to the Coalition Environment Committee at Parliament House, Canberra, in October 2015: What Rutherglen (north eastern Victoria) tells us about World’s Best Practice and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology .

If you prefer YouTube, this video about Amberley (south eastern Queensland) has become quite popular:

A CENTRAL thesis of global warming is that temperatures will keep going up, and up. They did across Australia from about 1960 to 2002. In recent years global temperatures appear to have plateaued. There is even cooling evident in the record for north-eastern Queensland, Australia. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology, however, keeps reporting catastrophic warming. This is achieved in part by making many adjustments to the historical data so the past appears cooler than it actually was. A group of us have been quite concerned by all the adjustments, and made submissions to a panel established in December 2014 to review procedures. Our submissions can be downloaded and/or accessed by clicking here.

Many of the recommendations in our submissions have been picked-up and repeated in the panel’s own first report. I’ve made an initial response to this report.

The panel was formed after a series of articles by Graham Lloyd in The Australian newspaper that can be accessed here: August 23, 2014 – Bureau of Meteorology ‘altering climate figures’ & Heat is on over weather bureau revising records (Graham Lloyd, The Australian). August 26, 2014 – ‘Amateurs’ challenging Bureau of Meteorology climate figures (Graham Lloyd, The Australian). August 27, 2014 – Climate records contradict Bureau of Meteorology (Graham Lloyd, The Australian). August 29, 2014 – Bureau of Meteorology told to be more transparent (Graham Lloyd, The Australian). August 29, 2014 – Groupthink reigns in climate change research (Maurice Newman, The Australian). August 30, 2014 – Weatherman’s records detail heat that ‘didn’t happen’ (Graham Lloyd, The Australian). August 30, 2014 – Distorting the data on our changeable climate (Adelaide Advertiser, The Australian’s Chris Kenny). September 2, 2014 – Bureau of Meteorology defended over temperature records by climate scientists (Graham Lloyd, The Australian). September 3, 2014 – Heat off Bourke after Bureau of Meteorology revision (Graham Lloyd, The Australian). September 4, 2014 – ‘More time’ to find Rutherglen temperature record (Graham Lloyd, The Australian). September 5, 2014 – Bureau of Meteorology ‘adding mistakes’ with data modelling (Graham Lloyd, The Australian). June 20, 2015 – Questions remain on BoM records (Graham Lloyd, The Australian).

Adjustments made to the temperature record at Rutherglen in Victoria have been particularly contentious, and the issues in dispute are summarized at this link. I’ve also summarized how homogenization has impacted temperature trends for New South Wales.