Is Global Warming Real?

My good friend over at Bungalow Bills Conservative Wisdom seems to think global warming is, well, a crock of shit. Being the cool person that I am, I know the State Climatologist. We are best good friends. OK, maybe not, but that guy is just freakin' cool.

Anywho, I went a-searchin' for some temperature data archives, and lo-and-behold, The Stook pulls through. I went to the National Weather Service Forecast Office Website for Peachtree City, GA. I somehow got to the archive page where I obtained the monthly temperature reports for the month of December for 2006, 2007, and 2008 (to date). I copied the data into a text file, and I inserted it into Excel using the Insert Data tool. I took the daily average (average of the high and low) for each day in the month for all three years. I plotted those in a chart (click for larger):

The blue is 2006, the red is 2007, and the green is 2008. As you can see, it is hard to gather a lot from that. However, when I took the monthly average, I was a little surprised (click for larger):

The averages for 2006 and 2007 are very close, but 2008 is several degrees lower. I mean, if we are having global warming, how can the entire month be 3 degrees cooler than the two previous years? AND, in case you aren't in the lower southeast, and you don't know, we are in a freakin' heat wave right now. I mean, I may get to go on a motorcycle ride for Christmas, and I'm a fair weather rider, if you know what I'm sayin'! So, even with the last few days being very uncharacteristically warm for winter (almost winter, according to the calendar), the month as a whole is much cooler so far.

I realize this may not be the case for the entire year, and I'm a little too lazy and have ever so slightly more important things to do with my day than play with graphs (Although, I do admit, I enjoy it very much. Yes, yes, I'm a complete and total nerdy nerd.) But, if I get really bored, I might just go look at November, then October, then September, then August, then... You catch my drift.

Anyway, I still don't know if global warming is really that real or not. But, I think the pollution we are all guilty of is real. We need to plant more trees and grow more green. I'm not saying go out and buy a hybrid or any of that newfangled bullshit. Just be mindful of any wastefulness you may be participating in, and be considerate of our planet.

That's my PSA for the day. Thanks.