The Story:
With the end of 2017, a British scientist, James Annan, has won a bet he made with two Russian physicists (global warming skeptics) in 2005.
What the Russians Believed:
The two Russians, Galina Mashnich and Vladimir Bashkirtsev, believed that such atmospheric warming as had been observed was the consequence of solar flares. They held that with the flare activity dying down temperatures on earth were about to fall.
Annan bet them US$10,000 that the years 2012-2017 would be warmer than the years 1998-2003 had been, to be determined by data kept by the U.S. National Climatic Data Center. Although the second of those periods has just now closed, it has been obvious for months now that Annan has won this bet. This New Years Day makes the win official.
The Thing to Know:
Mashnich and Bashkirtsev were always outliers as to their scientific position. The sunspot theory of climate was not mainstream even in 2005, and is less so now.
