Okay, we admit it. Blogger and regular Macleans.ca commenter Olaf’s righteous fury (Warning! Blue language!) at Lorne Gunter‘s column in today’s National Post got the better of us, and we had to read it, red card or no red card. It’s not an especially remarkable addition to his oeuvre, really. He’s annoyed, still and again, at the statistical malarkey of which the jealous guardians of anthropogenic global warming are capable. Or, more accurately, in this case he’s annoyed at what he suspects was an honest mistake by said guardians that went unquestioned because it produced the answer they expected and hoped for.
Okay, we admit it. Blogger and regular Macleans.ca commenter Olaf’s righteous fury (Warning! Blue language!) at Lorne Gunter‘s column in today’s National Post got the better of us, and we had to read it, red card or no red card. It’s not an especially remarkable addition to his oeuvre, really. He’s annoyed, still and again, at the statistical malarkey of which the jealous guardians of anthropogenic global warming are capable. Or, more accurately, in this case he’s annoyed at what he suspects was an honest mistake by said guardians that went unquestioned because it produced the answer they expected and hoped for.
This October wasn’t the warmest October ever [as had been reported], it was only the 70th-warmest in the past 114 years—that is, in the bottom half of all Octobers, not at the top of the list.
…
It took bloggers using little more than desktop PCs and Internet connections only a few hours to find the errors. The difference is, they were prepared to look. Their minds were not so clouded by bias in favour of the warming theory that they have stopped asking obvious questions.
Tsk. Outrageous. But what ho? This little addendum now graces the end of the column’s online version:
Please Note: While this column states that this past October was the 70th warmest on record, it was only 70th warmest in the United States. Globally, October 2008 very likely ranks among the top 10.
Would it be wrong of us, at this juncture, to fail to stifle a giggle? Damn. Too late.