It ignores natural climate variability
It's true that it's been extraordinarily hot this summer in most places. But apparently Hansen is ignoring natural climate cycles. The truth is that the climate exhibits variations that the hockey stick crowd deny exist.
The climate pattern this year matches global ones that occurred in the 1930s dust bowl and during the 1950s. Most people alive today do not remember that these were also periods of above average heat and drought. We had the same kinds of crop failures and the same weather patterns with regard to hurricanes. In fact, in places where records were broken this summer, most of the records that were broken were set back in the 1950s during the previous drought -- by about the same 1 or 2 degF that is the average global temperature increase we see today over the past decade or so.
Hansen uses averages over the period 1950 to 1980. While the '50s were hot, it cooled off significantly during the late '60s and '70s. Remember that the '70s were the time period when we worried about another ice age? As a result, averages taken over this period completely ignore shorter minor climate patterns that are very real.
