Recently, climate deniers have jumped on supposed comments from scientist Phil Jones that global warming has reversed since 1995. Really?
I decided to check out the BBC interview to see what he said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8511670.stm
Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically-significant global warming?
Yes, but only just. I also calculated the trend for the period 1995 to 2009. This trend (0.12C per decade) is positive, but not significant at the 95% significance level. The positive trend is quite close to the significance level. Achieving statistical significance in scientific terms is much more likely for longer periods, and much less likely for shorter periods.
Do you agree that from January 2002 to the present there has been statistically significant global cooling?
No. This period is even shorter than 1995-2009. The trend this time is negative (-0.12C per decade), but this trend is not statistically significant.
From what I read, he didn’t say that at all. He does acknowledge that the warming was on the borderline of significant increase, but he doesn’t say it decreased.
Time to find another flaw deniers.
