“The Australian article ‘We got it wrong on warming, says IPCC” demonstrates the inherent dangers in sourcing scientific information from a UK tabloid rather than climate scientists.
The Australian misrepresents the IPCC, claiming “The 2007 assessment report said the planet was warming at a rate of 0.2°C every decade, but according to Britain’s The Daily Mail the draft update report says the true figure since 1951 has been 0.12°C”. In actuality, the trend reported in the IPCC report was 0.13°C per decade (http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-direct-observations.html).
The Australian discusses a slowdown in surface temperature but fails to consider that the planet as a whole continues to build up heat at an accelerating rate, currently at a rate of 4 Hiroshima bombs-worth of heat every second.
The Australian also fails to report the growing body of research indicating that the slowdown in surface temperature is due to more heat accumulating in the ocean, indicated by direct ocean heat measurements. Discussion of ocean heat up-take is expected to be included in the upcoming IPCC report.”
