That they cut out all the satellite data after the early 2016 peak in Figure A5.18 is, frankly, shocking.
I don't think they "cut out" the data, it just wasn't within the timeframe of their report. The first half of the report came out in 2017, based on data through ~2016 (or earlier in some cases), and it took them another year to come out with this impacts assessment.
Thanks for the graph, but a 2-year decline from an all-time high... I mean, look at the graph. It's full of similar peaks and dips, but the long-term trend is still up.
The issue I have with all this "Climate Change" debate is, What do you want me to do about it?
Prepping.
Look, we're not going to prove the climate change issue one way or the other on this forum. What I see is, there are a large number of intelligent and well-informed people who say we don't need to worry about climate change. And there's a MUCH larger number of equally intelligent and well-informed people who say we're gonna get screwed, within our lifetimes or our children's lifetimes.
Science isn't settled by majority vote, and I sincerely hope the majority is dead wrong and we will not see their forecasts come true.
But this is a survival forum! Look at all the incredibly unlikely scenarios we've had prepping discussions about. The Yellowstone supervolcano. The geomagnetic poles flipping. A nationwide civilizational collapse with bands of looters roving the countryside.
If you don't want to call it "climate change", call it multi-year or multi-decade weather patterns. Prepping for these is not the same as prepping for "weather events". The timeframe is different. You're about to buy a homestead, with the intent of living there for 20+ years -- where should you locate it? What trees should you plant? Can you rely on the water table or the river flow? Do you need to adjust your plans for a long string of hot dry summers or "polar vortex" winters? Do you have medical issues that would be affected by wildfire smoke? Etc etc etc.
That's why I keep beating the climate change drum. I'm not enough of an expert to critique the science, and I'm not convinced that the alarming predictions are true. But I'm taking them seriously as a possibility.