BEST Bombs?

Last week, I posted on the Berkeley BEST Project's publicized (but not peer-reviewed) findings that the earth was warming faster than some other studies indicated. I also linked to two comments from statisticians that found BEST's statistical methodology wanting.

If you follow the blogosphere pertaining to atmospheric and climate science the last week, you've watched a firestorm develop over what appears to be a misleading presentation of BEST's own data.

London "Daily Mail" graphic, click to enlarge. Note the time scales are
different on the two two graphs. The lower graph plots temperatures the last ten years.

It seems that BEST's own raw data shows that the earth stopped warming the last dozen years as I, and even many pro-global warming climate scientists, have observed. This seems to contract BEST's PR about global warming "accelerating."

The Daily Mail's story is here. Judy Curry comments here.

So far, nothing I have seen contradicts the clear data that shows both earth's atmospheric temperature and ocean heat content have been flat to falling for more than a decade.  While there is no reliable way to forecast these values going forward, it is safe to say the science indicates, for now, global warming has stopped.

Finally, here is another writer's take on the situation. He describes it as a climate science "food fight." That seems about right.