Quote:Sure, you can compute it. What they're saying is that the system is so chaotic and complex that the simple statistics being used - such as the "global average" - are effectively meaningless.
However, I don't think I buy the concept that an overall temperature couldn't be calculated for the earth. Certainly the way I remember temperature being defined in physics classes should be theoretically calculable for any defined region.
What I could see as having more bearing on the question is measurements over the last century from a wide selection of rural areas, tracked for each region separately, and a detailed analysis of their variations within each region.
(Why rural areas? Because of the known and recognized phenomena of cities as 'heat islands', and with cities growing over the century temperature records from within them are inherently unreliable.)--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.