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Old 04-12-2013, 01:14 PM   #714 (permalink)
NeilBlanchard
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Reconstructed data using proxies is not the same as modeling projections. Temperatures in the past can be known to within a range of uncertainty - but we do not know all the factors that may have contributed. We know the major factors, but we don't always know how the various feedback effects worked.

And that is probably why the models of the future are *underestimating* the rate of warming, and as we move forward, the models will get more and more accurate.

The *most* concerning thing to me is that as dire as the projections were 10-20 years ago - *all* the revisions have underestimated the rate of change. They were correct in the general overall trends, but in fact as we see more and more direct data - it is always worse than even the most pessimistic models.

On the Arctic ice melting, it is the projections based on the *area* that are proving to be grossly underestimating what will happen - but the projections based on the *volume* of ice and the age of the ice that are much more accurate.
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