Updated: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up… Um, on second thought, I guess you can

What do Republicans have against science?  Is this really just a way to package corporate profits to God-Fearing Christians?  First, we have Fred Barnes making up crap, now George Will.

Over the weekend, the Washington Post‘s George Will, got in on the act. And it took us about ten minutes — longer, it appears, than the Post‘s editors spent — to figure out that Will, like Barnes, was essentially making stuff up.

Both of Will’s major “data points” fall apart after a moment’s scrutiny.

Here’s the first:
According to the University of Illinois’ Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979. 

But within hours of Will’s column appearing, the ACRC had posted the following statement on its website:
We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979. This decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California, and Oklahoma combined. 

It is disturbing that the Washington Post would publish such information without first checking the facts.
So, nevermind then.

As for Will’s second claim, he writes:

[A]ccording to the World Meteorological Organization, there has been no recorded global warming for more than a decade. 

This one is a little more complicated. But only a little.

Will’s claim appears to come from a BBC News article from last week, whose first version reported:

Global temperatures will drop slightly this year as a result of the cooling effect of the La Nina current in the Pacific, UN meteorologists have said. 

The World Meteorological Organization’s secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer.

This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.

 It’s true that temperatures haven’t risen since 1998, because that year was a particularly hot one. But as anyone with a high-school level grasp of statistics understands, you need to look at data over a broad period to get a realistic assessment of what’s going on. In fact, the WMO itself makes that very point in an “information note” that confirms that the organization believes global warming is continuing, and points out that the last decade has been the warmest on record.

h/t TPM for breaking this down.

For a nation that worries so much over education, we sure don’t seem to place much value on facts.  The Washington Post has egg on its face.  At this rate I’m expecting to see a piece entitled  I’m having an alien’s baby pop up on their opinion page.

The science is in, folks.  The debate over whether or not Global Warming exists is over.  All that’s left is what we’re going – or can – do about it.

Another h/t to Cassandra for directing me to these charts from 538!

Now let’s look at reality.

GO SCIENCE!  Amazing what happens when you don’t cherry-pick data.