Natural shifts in ocean circulation may trump human-caused warming over the next decade, causing global temperatures to cool slightly, says new research published in the journal Nature. But hang on to your pessimism: "Just to make things clear, we are not stating that anthropogenic climate change won't be as bad as previously thought" over the long run, says researcher Mojib Latif. Of course, if the cooler-decade theory holds true, there's the concern that "policymakers may either think mitigation is working or that there is no global warming at all," says coauthor Noel Keenlyside. Oh, Noel, policymakers are smarter than that. Sob.
source: Reuters, Agence France-Presse
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Comments
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rwelborn Posted 5:30 am
30 Apr 2008
Rest assured global warming deniers our environment is still sick as a small starving child with malaria.
Yay!
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Tasermons Partner Posted 2:47 pm
30 Apr 2008
Still, if it does happen, it may help "buy" some time to help reverse the warming trend.
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Delay And Deny Posted 12:29 am
01 May 2008
Yet, another anomalous decades long cooling trend!
Just like 1945 to 1975!
It seems like every two decades we get three more decades of cooling -- and this simply "masks" the effect of all that warming that man makes!
Well, solar cells work better in cooler weather...so they tell me...
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tico89 Posted 12:43 am
01 May 2008
On the downside, as said by rwelborn and perfectly exemplified by jabailo, we get another decade of deniers saying 'but nothing's happening so what are we worried about?'. And if we mention this study, we get accused of simply prevaricating and refusing to admit that there's no such thing as climate change.
Oddly though, the graphs I saw seemed to show more of a levelling off than much cooling. And then it leaps back up to join the levels that don't take the ocean into account. So the warming is clearly more effective than the cooling. Although, what happens when the cycle ends? Suddenly the ocean stops affecting the climate, or it goes into a warming cycle, in which case shouldn't it go even higher than only under human influence?
This doesn't really buy time...just makes it worse when the time is up.
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banana republican Posted 2:12 am
01 May 2008
For what it's worth, this year has actually had average temperatures so far here. But the media doesn't want that to be noticed. It's a common pattern, with our newspaper hyping cold spells, and not mentioning warm temperatures.
I don't believe any of this about the next decade being cold. What we'll see in the next decade is cold winters like the last one, held cold by extra snow from all the extra open water in the arctic - and summers becoming increasingly warm, with increased media attention on how cold the winters are.
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Tasermons Partner Posted 3:11 am
01 May 2008
Just like 1945 to 1975!
Actually, jabailo, recent studies have shown that some of the supposed cooling for that period (which was by no means nearly as apparent or widespread as the recent warming trend) may have been due in part to the release of human-induced large particulate matter into the atmosphere.
In other words, soot and ash, amongst other things, in very large quantities, as a result of old coal plants, inefficient vehicles, and manufacturing facilities.
Large particulate matter tends to reflect sunlight.
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mat Posted 3:21 am
01 May 2008
other news agencies might not care, but you should -
the following article is merely one of dozens per day that show up in news blogs around the world
http://www.alternet.org/water/83796/
the world-wide poor are starving and dying due to drought conditions globally. and biodiversity is adversely affected as well.
ok, maybe some parts of the planet will cool for awhile, but so what? mostly, it is rich areas that need not worry - we have high gas prices in America, but most or almost all of us in the developed world will still be alive and eating.
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