What happened to global warming?
From the BBC:
This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that
fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007,
but in 1998.
But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.
And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.
So what on Earth is going on?
Climate change sceptics, who passionately and consistently argue
that man's influence on our climate is overstated, say they saw it
coming.
They argue that there are natural cycles, over which we have no control, that dictate how warm the planet is.
This really cracks me up. As I’ve said often here, my high
school science teachers discussed this 30+ years ago when (at that
time) the alarm was that the earth was entering an ice age. We knew
back then what politicians have conveniently forgotten in the following
30 years: the sun accounts for over 98% of the earth’s heat
(gasp!) and the oceans (our greatest heat stores) go through cycles as
well.
All I can figure out is that this scientific amnesia is politically motivated. There’s no other reason that fits.
[Solar scientist Piers Corbyn from Weatheraction] claims that solar
charged particles impact us far more than is currently accepted, so
much so he says that they are almost entirely responsible for what
happens to global temperatures.
He is so excited by what he has discovered that he plans to tell the
international scientific community at a conference in London at the end
of the month.
If proved correct, this could revolutionise the whole subject.
Revolutionize it back to the 1970s models? I’m not sure that “revolutionize” is the right word.
What is really interesting at the moment is what is happening to our oceans. They are the Earth's great heat stores.
According to research conducted by Professor Don Easterbrook from
Western Washington University last November, the oceans and global
temperatures are correlated.
The oceans, he says, have a cycle in which they warm and cool
cyclically. The most important one is the Pacific decadal oscillation
(PDO).
For much of the 1980s and 1990s, it was in a positive cycle, that
means warmer than average. And observations have revealed that global
temperatures were warm too.
But in the last few years it has been losing its warmth and has recently started to cool down.
These cycles in the past have lasted for nearly 30 years.
So could global temperatures follow? The global cooling from 1945 to 1977 coincided with one of these cold Pacific cycles.
Professor Easterbrook says: "The PDO cool mode has replaced the warm
mode in the Pacific Ocean, virtually assuring us of about 30 years of
global cooling."
So what does it all mean? Climate change sceptics argue that this is evidence that they have been right all along.
HT: Bill J.
