Global Temperatures Increased by 1ºC Since the 1950s

The results of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study – a major research initiative conducted to confirm or infirm global warming – finds that the phenomenon is indeed real. The paper shows that average temperatures around the world increased by 1 degree Celsius since the mid-1950s.

In order to be thorough, the research team analyzed data from no less than 15 individual sources. Some of these sources stretches back until the 1800s, providing the group with the temporal resolution needed to make accurate predictions.

At the same time, the new paper addresses some of the issues raised by climate change skeptics in the scientific community. These include the presence and traits of the urban heat island effect, the poor quality of weather station data, as well as data selection bias risks.

These were all valid concerns, but the BEST study addressed and explained each of them individually.

Interestingly, the Berkeley team was able to conclude that previous studies confirming global warming – carried out by research groups in the United States and the United Kingdom with much more limited data – were able to accurately gage the extent of the global phenomenon.

Careful analysis of available data and skeptics' critics revealed that any potential bias in the data would be completely insufficient to influence the overall result in any meaningful way. NOAA, NASA and the UK-based Hadley Center had all estimated a 1ºC increase in global temperatures since the mid-1950s.

“The Berkeley Earth analysis is the first study to address the issue of data selection bias, by using nearly all the available data, which includes about 5 times as many station locations as were reviewed by prior groups,” the team behind the new investigation reports.

The research should “help cool the debate over global warming by addressing many of the valid concerns of the skeptics in a clear and rigorous way,” adds the co-founder and executive director of Berkeley Earth, Elizabeth Muller.

The team of physicists, statisticians and climatologists that conducted the new study also included 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Saul Perimutter. All of these experts contributed to the massive effort of compiling a unified database containing the vast amount of information the group had access to.

In all, the BEST study team submitted four scientific papers for peer-review. When they are published, all these documents will automatically be included in the newest report on climate change currently being developed by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).