Why would the cold China winter disprove anthropogenic global warming?

Question

It seems like the only logical argument is that if China is having its coldest winter in 100 years, that means the planet can't be warming.

But that doesn't make sense, because we know the planet is warming:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.lrg.gif

Yet there have already been 10 seperate questions in the Environment section today alone suggesting that this cold China winter disproves global warming.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ahj_9Ts6XCPlEPR8x0ZiSSPsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080205082823AAcjmHT

Is there some logical reasoning behind this argument that I'm missing?

Answer 1

Global Climate temps fluctuate from time to time regardless of the thought that we humans can control it. That is naive in itself.  Some parts of the world will experience colder than normal and hotter than normal. a lot of it has to do with oceans and currents as well as UV from the Sun all combined make the weather what it is.

Answer 2

I think you have to then ask the question, what is climate?  Weather and temperature are a part of climate and so China having extreme cold is a part of that just as Australia having extreme warm as well.  The problem is automatically assuming that Australia being warm and China being cold mean one thing over another since we do not know enough about our planet and its weather process.  One person sees record temperature highs and record temperature lows as global warming another as not.  I say since the models have not predicted what is happening now that we cannot for sure state what will happen in the future based upon these models as well as the temperature data that is collected from urban areas.

Answer 3

Weather events don't hit the "top 20" in terms of what we have to be concerned about with regards to global warming.  

The theory has enough science and evidence behind it that there is no need for misinformation or exaggeration.

If we were to talk about meteorology for a moment, China's record cold may be reasonable given the particularly cold ENSO cycle we're in, but Australia's record heat seems odd in that context.  Neither however demonstrate or prove anything about climate without being integrated into the global picture over long periods of time.

I wonder how long and accurate China's weather measurements are.  If they've only been tracking for 50 years, records there would be broken with a fairly high frequency.

Answer 4

Overall climate is increasing in temperature.

Its cold in china though. But as far as im aware, china isnt the world.

Answer 5

Yes you're missing the whole picture!

The weather in any given particular place at some particular time has nothing to do with whether global warming is happening.  

  It's about general trends over fairly long periods of time on a global basis.  Global warming because of the change in weather patterns that it would cause, might make one place colder and another place hotter, one place wetter and another place dryer.  It is very complex and cannot in any way be explained or proved or disproved by looking at such specific things like whether it is cold at your house or cold in China.  

  That's the problem with so many people who want to put in their two cents and don't have a clue what they are talking about.  Ignore such stupid questions and their stupid answers.

Answer 6

I wish it were as simple.  It seems intuitive when we see reports of hard cold winters in a certain geographical area that it shold be generalized to the whole planet.  Unfortunately global warming is real. Just keep reading and studying. Glaciers are retreating all over the globe. Average temps are increasing.  China is getting ON AVERAGE warmer and drier. etc.

Yes, it is always possible to find dissenters to this, but most don't withstand scrutiny in that they have a vested interest.

Answer 7

Nope, you're not missing anything.

Answer 8

Global fluctuation is the only plausable answer to either.  What happened to all of the rhetoric of the 70's that all but assured us that we were heading into another ice age?  Does this sound familiar, but with warming?

Answer 9

You're missing it alright....it supports the argument your trendline is broken, and has been for several years now.

Answer 10

No, it is winter it is supposed to be cold in general the planet as a whole is warming it is not called China warming. Also one winter would just be weather and not climate.

Answer 11

As AGW has yet to be proven..... there is nothing to disprove.

AND.....we DO NOT know with certainty that the Earth is warming.  The data used to study Earth's temp is flawed.