My argument in a picture so even Emerson understands

Trade Minister Craig Emerson on our 2GB show this week again tried to deny there had been a 16-year pause in global warming.

His argument was bizarre - that there cannot have been such a pause because the average temperature of the past decade was higher than of the decade before.

I was cross with myself for not being able to make Emerson understand the fallacy of that argument. I used an analogy - that my 18-year-old son stopped growing a year or two ago, but his average height over the past couple of years is still greater than his average height before then.

But Emerson refused to understand the point.

Forensic accountant Terry was equally frustrated with the mathematical ineptitude of a senior minister of the government which gave us a carbon tax on the assumption the world was warming fast.

So Terry has produced a graphic which surely even Emerson can understand:

As I tried to tell Emerson, to say the past decade was warmer than the one before is true - but still does not contradict the fact that for 16 years there has been no warming of any statistical significance.

Now, finally, will Emerson retract and apologise?

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