The government "establishment" owns the surface temperature data -- it is repeatedly "adjusted" until it "proves" the computer model predictions were correct all along !
It used to be the 1930s were the hottest decade for the US -- hotter than the 1990s.
Every year small same-direction "adjustments" were made after the 1990s.
Now the 1930s are less hot, and the 1990s have become the hottest decade for the US.
Climate "science" is the only science where the past (temperature) is continuously changing, but the future temperature never changes -- runaway global warming is coming, and don't you forget it -- and the reason its coming is "because we say so".
The hiatus / flat trend / pause was there for 15 years, from 2000 to 2015, and then in 2015 it was "adjusted" in the surface data, and now it's gone.
The data are "fixed" to match the predictions, and keep the CO2 is evil scare alive.
Left-wing politicians, bureaucrats, and the scientists they hire, almost completely control climate "science" -- both the predictions and actuals.
The weather satellites will be attacked soon.
I predict they will be claimed to be unreliable, if the general public ever starts noticing them -- NASA will claim there are "malfunctions" -- instruments will mysteriously "fail" -- the satellites will "drift off course" ... the government will claim they are no longer useful ... and scientists on the government payrolls will agree the weather satellites are no good (because they want to keep their jobs).
Few people in the general public know of the weather satellites -- NASA doesn't even mention them in their "hottest year ever" press release.
If NASA and NOAA can claim tiny margins of error of +/- 0.1 degrees C. and +/- 0.09 degrees C. for surface temperature data from 1880 to 2016 (that's probably one tenth the actual margin of error, or less), and at the same time they ignore the margins of error and publish the average temperature of the globe in HUNDREDTHS of a degree C., then all rational science and math are lost.
The data are being forced to fit the theory.
The US President, the Pope, and hundreds of other world leaders, have all morphed into "climate scientists", along with dumb, but rich, Al Gore ... and they all say anyone who doubts the 97% consensus is a denier!
I know they made up the 97% consensus.
The general public does not know.
I know "denier" is Saul Alinsky-style ridicule.
But it works to prevent rational debate.
A big lie repeated enough times becomes the big truth.
A multi-trillion dollar highly government-subsidized "green" industry is built upon the CO2 is evil fantasy -- it will not collapse without a huge fight.
Anyone with common sense would notice, just from going outside every day, that the climate is pleasant, and has not changed much in our lifetime.
The US 48 contiguous states were cooler in 2015 than they were in 2005 -- try convincing your friends of that fact from NOAA.
It would have to get so cold that people could not help but to notice there's no global warming anymore:
-- a few tenths of a degree C. cooling ,even in one year, will never be noticed,
-- 0.5 degrees C. cooling, in a few years, probably would not be noticed either,
-- maybe 1 degree C. cooling, in a few years, would be noticed ... maybe ...
In my opinion NASA (US) / NOAA (US) / MET OFFICE (UK) will never allow the average temperature data they publish to contradict the CO2 is evil theory in our lifetimes.
That means if there was a new global cooling trend, people would have to notice the cooling by themselves ... AND ... simultaneously ignore government officials telling them they are confused -- global warming is still in progress.
When was the last time you heard a leftist admit he was wrong ... or even debate the "truth" as he sees it?