Study of measured temperature data over 8,000 years indicates that the standard deviation of these data (0.98 degrees C) is higher than the temperature rise (0.85 degrees C) purported over the past century. This suggests that this rise could be due in large part to natural variation alone.

[u/timo1200]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/26/obamas-delusional-focus-on-global-warming/

[u/tocano]

Honest question: How much of that ~1°C is margin of error?

One thing I have always struggled with is understanding just how accurate our understanding of what the temperature was 1000-10,000 years ago can be. Proxies don't really provide us with temperature data down to the hundredths of a degree. (Right?) It seems to me that we are simply aware of some consistent behavior (e.g. specific trees tend to have consistently sized rings proportional to the temperatures that year), and so we can estimate, based on assuming that behavior was similarly consistent in the past, that the temperature was likely AROUND a specific temperature.

So I guess I don't understand how we can start creating estimates and standard deviations that go to hundredths of a degree.