“May was hottest on Earth since records began”

This letter is in the response to the above online article (June 24). It may be exciting to think that there was a record high temperature for May but on closer examination of the data, one sees that such claims are not correct. The amount by which the record was supposedly set was one-fiftieth of a degree Celsius. This is far less than the uncertainty in both the land and ocean surface temperature measurements, which are typically +/- 0.2 degrees and +/- 1.0 degrees respectively. In other words, we cannot measure so-called global temperatures to one-fiftieth of a degree Celsius. The record is therefore meaningless.
Whenever such temperatures are given in hundredths of a degree, you know it is a merely a computed statistic that has little association with the real world. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should be ashamed of engaging in such PR hype. Yet, it is on the basis of such unscientific propaganda that the United States and Canada are stopping their use of coal for generating electricity, even though it is the cheapest source available and is being increasingly clean. We must learn from Europe which is desperately scrambling to re-open its coal stations as they realise that green energy sources such as wind and solar are completely unable to provide the high quality, abundant power needed by today's industrial societies.
Dr. Tim Ball
Environmental consultant and former climatology professor, University of Winnipeg
British Columbia, Canada