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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>A thought occurred to me today as I was reading about a deep lingering cold snap in upstate New York. We discuss the notion of global warming, which is based on an average temperature over the year. But the thermometers are not evenly distributed. They are generally more concentrated near population centers. But it is entirely likely that the concentration factor is insufficient: the distribution of thermometers should be proportioned according to the local human population.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Reasoning: I have a correspondent who lives in upstate NY, who told me of the terribly cold weather they have been having, very unusually cold. I pointed out that they are singlehandedly rescuing the planet from global warming by lowering the average temperature. But the number of data entries into the temperature average may be inappropriately high for that sparsely populated area. If we scaled it according to population density, then most of the climate stations in New York State would be located in New York City and the surrounding areas, with rural upstate NY being nearly irrelevant in the average temperature. It just doesn’t feel right to me that a few people upstate could be saving the world from global warming without even very much overall suffering. The nearly deserted Wyoming gets as much data into the average as down here on the California coast where there are so many proles per square kilometer. It just doesn’t seem fair somehow. More people should equal more data in the global average temperature.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike <o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>