There’s this theory, called the “global cooling” theory, that states that, well, not only is global warming a myth, but that the earth is, in fact, cooling. A number of opinion pieces have been written on it, the Drudge Report ran with it, and even the new book Super Freakonomics states that while the world debates global warming, temperatures have lowered over the last decade.

While it’d be great if global cooling were happening, and carbon emissions instead became unicorns and biodegradable confetti once it hit the atmosphere, the Associated Press did some research.  And, well, it’s just not true.

In a blind test, the AP gave temperature data to four independent statisticians and asked them to look for trends, without telling them what the numbers represented. The experts found no true temperature declines over time…The AP sent expert statisticians NOAA’s year-to-year ground temperature changes over 130 years and the 30 years of satellite-measured temperatures preferred by skeptics and gathered by scientists at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Statisticians who analyzed the data found a distinct decades-long upward trend in the numbers, but could not find a significant drop in the past 10 years in either data set. The ups and downs during the last decade repeat random variability in data as far back as 1880.

Basically, those that are crying cooling are cherry-picking data and are saying that a micro-trend is, in fact, a long-term one. Unfortunately, this gives fuel to the rhetoric of those trying to avoid legislating climate change for whatever reason, claiming they have science on their side. Which, well, they don’t. This obfuscation of the truth has even been addressed by President Obama, who on Friday said these naysayers,

“make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change — claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary.”

Oh, it’s fun when it seems like science contradicts itself. Let’s hope the “real” science wins out.

photo credit: thebadastronomer’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons