The Volokh Conspiracy - Global Warming For Thee But Not for Me:

The Associated Press has a story about climate change that has been getting some play in the blogosphere:

  It may be cold comfort during a frigid February, but last month was by far the hottest January ever.
  The broken record was fueled by a waning El Nino and a gradually warming world, according to U.S. scientists who reported the data Thursday. Records on the planet's temperature have been kept since 1880.
  Spurred on by unusually warm Siberia, Canada, northern Asia and Europe, the world's land areas were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than a normal January, according to the U.S. National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. That didn't just nudge past the old record set in 2002, but broke that mark by 0.81 degrees, which meteorologists said is a lot, since such records often are broken by hundredths of a degree at a time.

Over at Powerline, Scott Johnson (who I had the pleasure of meeting in person a few months ago) suggests that the story may be all hot air. He points to the following comment from reader William Katz:

  The story lists the usual "global warming" horrors. Then, toward the end, the writer casually informs us that January temperatures in the U.S., presumably the home of environmental original sin, were essentially normal, "ranking only the 49th warmest since 1895."
  Oh.
  As Gilda Radner used to say: "Never mind."

I'm no expert in global warming, but isn't Mr. Katz wrongly assuming that the causes and effects of climate change occur in the same place? It's been 15 years since I looked at this issue closely, but I thought that it was called "global warming" and not "national warning" or "New Jersey warming" because potential causes of climate change introduced in one place tend to have a global effect. If you pump out CO2 in Ohio one day, the next week that CO2 is mostly on the other side of the planet thanks to the jet stream, etc. Given that, I don't know why average temperatures in the U.S. last month somehow is supposed to discredit the AP story about worldwide averages.

That's my understanding, at least. Am I wrong? I hope informed readers will offer some thoughts in the comment thread.

	[Orin Kerr, February 16, 2007 at 2:59pm] Trackbacks Global Warming For Thee But Not for Me: The Associated Press has a story about climate change that has been getting some play in the blogosphere: It may be cold comfort during a frigid February, but last month was by far the hottest January ever. The broken record was fueled by a waning El Nino and a gradually warming world, according to U.S. scientists who reported the data Thursday. Records on the planet's temperature have been kept since 1880. Spurred on by unusually warm Siberia, Canada, northern Asia and Europe, the world's land areas were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than a normal January, according to the U.S. National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. That didn't just nudge past the old record set in 2002, but broke that mark by 0.81 degrees, which meteorologists said is a lot, since such records often are broken by hundredths of a degree at a time. Over at Powerline, Scott Johnson (who I had the pleasure of meeting in person a few months ago) suggests that the story may be all hot air. He points to the following comment from reader William Katz: The story lists the usual "global warming" horrors. Then, toward the end, the writer casually informs us that January temperatures in the U.S., presumably the home of environmental original sin, were essentially normal, "ranking only the 49th warmest since 1895." Oh. As Gilda Radner used to say: "Never mind." I'm no expert in global warming, but isn't Mr. Katz wrongly assuming that the causes and effects of climate change occur in the same place? It's been 15 years since I looked at this issue closely, but I thought that it was called "global warming" and not "national warning" or "New Jersey warming" because potential causes of climate change introduced in one place tend to have a global effect. If you pump out CO2 in Ohio one day, the next week that CO2 is mostly on the other side of the planet thanks to the jet stream, etc. Given that, I don't know why average temperatures in the U.S. last month somehow is supposed to discredit the AP story about worldwide averages. That's my understanding, at least. Am I wrong? I hope informed readers will offer some thoughts in the comment thread.