The temperature escalator

From ....And then there's Physics

One of the most well-known graphics from Skeptical Science is the escalator. It illustrates how contrarians tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there’s been no warming, while “realists” recognise the reality of long-term warming.

A classic example of the former was the so-called pause, which was based on claims that there had been no warming since the strong El Nino in 1998. Of course, as illustrated by the escalator, there really hadn’t been a pause in global warming.

The Skeptical Science escalator is, however, now slightly dated, with the latest version ending in 2015. I also noticed that Robert Rohde had presented an updated version on Twitter, which he called the staircase of denial.

This motivated me to produce an updated version for Skeptical Science, which I’ve also posted below.