Now, what if smoothed HadCRUT3 for 2028 turns out no warmer than it was for 1958? Or if a linear trend from 1958 to 2028 turns out to have flat or downward slope? Not that I expect that to pan out, but what if that does happen? Would that not mean that the effect of increasing CO2 on global temperature is obviously a lot smaller than the scientists considered by IPCC made it out to be? And I mean so obvious that this would be understood correctly by the regulars in SED and even interested highschoolers?
What if smoothed HadCRUT3 in 2028 significantly exceeds that of 1958, but smoothed baseline-difference-adjusted RSS (add .15 degree to RSS TLT index as currently defined) in 2028 turns out no warmer than 1958's smoothed HadCRUT3? Would that not also mean that the effect of CO2 on global temperature is a lot less than proposed by those saying we have to do something about it? And in addition, that there is a discrepancy between HadCRUT3 and RSS to figure out?
What about something less extreme? What if at least 2 of the 5 indices of global temperature show downward linear trend from 1999 to 2029? What if all 5 of them do that? What if CO2 continues rising, to 430 PPMV in
2029 (approx. exponential extrapolation of 1999-2009 increase), and all 5 indices of global temperature have downward linear trend from 1999 to 2029? This is something that I consider fairly likely to happen, given how much of the 1973-2005 temperature rise looks like a continuation of something periodic (probably PDO and AMO) rather than CO2, and the sun looking like it's starting a near-repeat of the Dalton Minimum. If as much of post-1973 or post-1950 warming is from CO2 as advocated by those saying we have to do something about CO2, should not a CO2 increase from 367 PPMV (approx. 1999 5-year average) to 430 PPMV accomplish an upward linear trend in global temperature from 1999 to 2029 in spite of AMO, PDO and solar variation?