I have read it Moondoong. I'm not really sure what to say. I think Anthony Watts is struggling to read something into it that supports his case.
Two things that strike me - look at Fig. 1 - the temperature actually went down (not flat for the five year average, but DOWN for the five year average) between 1940 and 1950, and 1900 and 1910. No one looks back now and says 'well, global warming stopped at that time'! It just kept on going up since then. We have no reason at all to expect this plateau to be any different.
Also, remember the hoo ha about solar radiative forcing? Look at the chart in Fig 6. Radiative forcing from the sun is at about 0.25 W per sq metre, almost negligible. Greenhouse gas radiative forcing is now a massive 3 W per sq metre. That means every square metre on the planet (more or less, for arguments sake, ignoring the fact that the earth is a sphere for a moment) gets an extra 3 watts of extra heating from the sun due to extra warming from GHG's.
Nowhere does Hansen et al say future warming has stopped or is reduced, in fact they say (as quoted by Watts) "our interpretation of the larger role of unforced variability in temperature change of the past decade suggests that global temperature will rise significantly in the next few years as the tropics moves (sic) inevitably to the next El Nino phase".
