Heat on figures

In a recent Dominion Post editorial the claim was made that there had been a 1C increase in ’average temperature’ in the last 100 years.

I wonder why the writer thought this was worthy of mention: I have at hand a graph showing mean temperatures and global CO2 levels for the last 200 million years, and I can assure anyone interested that the mild perturbations of recent times are as nothing.

Further, the claim was in respect to mean temperatures and not maximum temperatures, so it is worth pointing out that if night-times and winters are less cold than before, then this will result in an increase in the mean temperature. It is not a requirement for an increase in the mean that we all start bursting into flames, though no doubt this was the impression the column wished to give.

REX BENSON

Northland