In a blind test, economists reject the notion of a global warming pause | John Abraham

Four separate studies have now demolished the myth of a global warming 'pause'

Oh how resilient myths can be, even in the face of facts. This past week saw the publication of the third strong refutation of the myth that global warming had somehow stopped a decade or two ago. You would think that with 2014 the hottest year on record and 2015 almost certain to exceed that, and 2016 to potentially set yet another heat record, people would use common sense to conclude that global warming continues. You'd also think with ocean heating breaking records (as discussed here) and loss of ice around the world, any lingering doubts would be put to rest. But alas, for some reason, even more proof is needed.

The first paper, which I covered here looked at the actual temperature trends and found no statistically significant reduction in the rate of warming. The latest paper, just published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society by Stephan Lewandowsky, James Risbey, and Naomi Oreskes, looks at the evolution of the terms "pause" and "hiatus." The authors find that over the past decade or so, there has been a lot of interest in both the scientific community (as judged by papers covering the topic) and by the general public (as determined by web-search statistics).