Writers in The Australian continues to misinterpret scientific statements on climate change. A recent press release from the World Meteorological Organization reported on the temperature in 2011, noting that it continues the trend of years much warmer than the long-term average:

At present, 2011’s nominal value ranks as the equal 10th highest on record, and the 13 warmest years have all occurred in the 15 years between 1997 and 2011.

The WMO also noted that 2011 was the warmest La Niña year on record (La Niña years tend to have cooler global temperatures, in contrast to El Niño years).

Imre Salusinszky in The Australian managed to twist all this into something with the complete opposite meaning:

Last year was the sixth coldest since 1997, which shows the catastrophic scenarios of recent times are no longer looming over us.

You only have to look at the WMO graph to see that we’re hardly out of the woods.

It’s almost as if Salusinszky’s not actually interested in reporting on the science. Surely not?

(Source: scienceblogs.com)