Mail on Sunday Corrects Warming ‘Pause’ Error, Deflects Blame

It’s not always easy to own up to mistakes. So the Mail on Sunday deserves some credit for correcting an error it made reporting average global surface temperatures.

But it’s still unclear how the error came about.

In an article on February 19, Mail on Sunday journalist David Rose wrote that “the world average temperature in January 2017 was about the same as January 1998”. The article implied this was evidence for a global warming ‘pause’ — an argument of which climate science deniers are fond, no matter how many times scientists point out its failings.

The statement appeared in a follow up article to an ‘investigation’ that was widely criticised for trying to unfairly stir up scientific controversy.