Originally a comment by Acolyte of Sagan on It woz the volcanoes wot dunnit.

Another indication that human emissions dwarf those of volcanoes is the fact that atmospheric CO2 levels, as measured by sampling stations around the world…

This reminded me of conversations I’ve had with climate change deniers who have argued that the global temperature isn’t rising, there are plenty of cold areas that would lower the average that the scientists calculate if only there were more measuring stations. In other words, there are large areas between measuring stations and that’s where ithe colder regions are that would lower the measured average. Some even go so far as to claim that the scientists deliberately avoid those areas in order to keep the lie going!

When I point out that more measuring stations are put in place all the time to enable more accurate measurements, and that the result is still increasing temperatures, the reply has been that it’s because where there was once one unmonitored gap, now there are two – placing a station c in the gap between stations a and b just creates gaps a-c and c-b.

They are playing the creationist ‘God of the gaps’ argument with climate change.