USA Today interviews Birkel about accurately measuring global warming
USA Today interviewed Maine State Climatologist Sean Birkel for a fact checking article titled “April 1895 v. April 2023 temperature comparison does not disprove climate change.” According to Birkel, also assistant professor with a joint appointment at University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the UMaine Climate Change Institute, determining whether global warming has occurred by comparing two discrete and short time periods is ineffective. “To identify climate trends it is necessary to examine long-term observational records, not just recent months or seasons,” he says.