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Climate models don’t overestimate global warming, says study

JAN 29, 2015
Physics Today

Los Angeles Times : Even though Earth has appeared to be experiencing a global warming hiatus over the past 15 years, climate models are accurate in their predictions of rising global temperatures, according to a new study published in Nature. Piers Forster of the University of Leeds in the UK and colleagues looked at climate models that cover 1900–2012 and focused on 114 possible 15- and 62-year intervals. Although they found no inherent bias in the models, they did notice that the shorter time intervals were more susceptible to errors caused by manmade activity and by unpredictable periodic climate variations often caused by ocean fluctuations or volcanic activity. The simulations for longer periods tended to more closely match observations. Furthermore, 9 of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2002.

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