Wood Romances

I see many contrarians using the Hadley Central England Temperature record (HadCET) temperature record in an attempt to say that "modest warming" has been happening for 300 years, long before CO2 could be to blame, suggesting that continued warming in recent decades can't be attributable to CO2. Much of this rhetoric depends on dishonesty for at three reasons:  HadCET is a local temperature record for Central England. It's not a good indicator of global temperatures. There were no daily means available between 1659 and 1772, only monthly means. These means are not terribly reliable compared to modern temperature records, depending on estimates and historical diaries, instead of daily readings. From 1772 to 1878, HadCET only records daily means but lacks Tmax and Tmin data. HadCET is only directly comparable to modern temperature records in 1878. Most annalists consider HadCET to be moderately reliable following 1772, and we should treat the data prior to 1772 with a s...