The climate chart that sparks a count v ratio debate

Long-time reader Chris P. alerted me to a debate over climate graphs between Aaron Brown and Hank Green who have each recorded youtubes stating their positions (Brown and Green).One of these charts (shown above) actually defines an unusual way of measuring climate change. It originally came from the official Climate Change Special Report of 2017 (Figure 6.5, also reproduced as Figure ES.5).This chart shows red and blue bars over time, between 1930 and 2016. The key ingredients are days in which the temperature reached record high or low. The bar is red for years in which the number of record highs exceeded the number of record lows; the bar height is the number of record highs per number of record lows. On the other hand, if the count of record lows is higher, then the bar is blue, and its height is the ratio of record low to record high.The climate scientists are concerned about the increasing trend in the number of red bars, as well as the height of red bars. This suggests that the…