Pielk Sr. on the 30 year random walk in surface temperature record

WUWT
"The 2011 Bye et al GRL paper conclusion reads

“In 1935, the International Meteorological Organisation confirmed that ‘climate is the average weather’ and adopted the years 1901-1930 as the ‘climate normal period’. Subsequently a period of thirty years has been retained as the classical period of averaging (IPCC 2007). Our analysis suggests that this administrative decision was an inspired guess. Random walks of length about 30 years within natural variability are an ‘inconvenient truth’ which must be taken into account in the global warming debate. This is particularly true when the causes of trends in the temperature record are under consideration.”

This paper is yet another significant contribution that raises further issues on the use of multi-decadal linear surface temperature trends to diagnose climate change."