False claim of warming since the TAR


As noted in the previous entry, page 249 of AR4 Chapter 3 states that 

"Clearly, the world’s surface temperature has continued to increase since the TAR and the trend when computed in the same way as in the TAR remains 0.6°C over the 20th century. "

The first part of this sentence is false. There has been no warming since the TAR (Third Assessment Report) was published in 2001. This can be seen in any of the available sources of temperature data. Here, for example, is the global surface temperature according to GISS.

It is quite clear that there is no significant warming over the period 2001 - 2007. In fact the mean temperature anomaly is remarkably flat over this period. 

A detailed study of temperature trends since 2001 has been carried out by Lucia at The Blackboard, where she points out that temperature trends are close to zero, contradicting the IPCC prediction of a rise of 0.2 degrees per decade.