Has global warming stopped?

Question

Witness the drama at Bali as news emerges that something is not quite right in the global warming camp.

With only few days remaining in 2007, the indications are the global temperature for this year is the same as that for 2006 – there has been no warming over the 12 months.

The fact is that the global temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every year since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased. Temperatures across the world are not increasing as they should according to the fundamental theory behind global warming – the greenhouse effect. Something else is happening and it is vital that we find out what or else we may spend hundreds of billions of pounds needlessly.
Some media commentators say that the science of global warming is now beyond doubt and those who advocate alternative approaches or indeed modifications to the carbon dioxide greenhouse warming effect had lost the scientific argument. Not so.

Certainly the working hypothesis of CO2 induced global warming is a good one that stands on good physical principles but let us not pretend our understanding extends too far or that the working hypothesis is a sufficient explanation for what is going on.

I have heard it said, by scientists, journalists and politicians, that the time for argument is over and that further scientific debate only causes delay in action. But the wish to know exactly what is going on is independent of politics and scientists must never bend their desire for knowledge to any political cause, however noble.

The science is fascinating, the ramifications profound, but we are fools if we think we have a sufficient understanding of such a complicated system as the Earth’s atmosphere’s interaction with sunlight to decide. We know far less than many think we do or would like you to think we do. We must explain why global warming has stopped.
http://www.newstatesman.com/200712190004

Terry, Will he be wearing his cape and making swooshing sounds while flying around?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ak4JrgZbecG8YtLjJpsUnpXsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071221065830AAXR8bX

Llyod, if you don't like the question, don't take the time to answer it. Do you need simple questions? Is this one too taxing?

Answer 1

The case for or against man made global warming I leave to the scientists.

The politics of Kyoto seems racist as it unfairly targets mostly White nations while giving Black and Asian nations a free pass.

I and most conservatives agree that we need stricter environmental laws, but for all nations equally. This way way we can still be equal trading partners.

There is no reason to believe that this 10,000-year-old cycle of solar-induced warming and cooling will change. Dr. Sallie Baliunas, an astrophysicist with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and one of the nation's leading experts on global climate change, believes that we may be nearing the end of a solar warming cycle. Since the last minimum ended in 1715, Baliunas says there is a strong possibility that the Earth will start cooling off in the early part of the 21st Century.

Liberal "Kyoto Treaty types" always give the communist Chinese a free pass. China has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on their military and offensive space-based weapons but cannot afford Kyoto? I wonder if having the worlds largest army has anything to do with it?

Answer 2

No, it hasn't.

This is easy to prove. All you have to do is graph the data and do a statistical best fit line.

1975-Present: http://tamino.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/t1975.jpg
1998-Present: http://tamino.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/t1998.jpg
2000-Present: http://tamino.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/t2000.jpg

Quite clearly, the planet continues to warm. What you're talking about is yearly variations in the weather. That's just noise in the signal. The signal is the trend, or the average over several years. See my discussion here for further details:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ar5f3rbVBmo0v3lx0A68zLLty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071217121713AA4aAyU

In fact, as NASA's James Hansen points out, the fact that we were in a cool El Nino (Southern Oscillation) cycle year and lowest point in the solar cycle year and yet were almost as warm as the warmest year on record is strong evidence in support of continued global warming.

"The natural variations of the Southern Oscillation and the solar cycle thus have minor but not entirely insignificant effects on year-to-year temperature change. Given that both of these natural effects were in their cool phases in 2007, it makes the unusual warmth this year all the more notable. It also suggests that, barring the unlikely event of a large volcanic eruption, a record global temperature exceeding that of 2005 can be expected within the next 2-3 years."

Answer 3

I think that the melting of Arctic ice creating a "northwest passage" connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans this summer, indicates that the warming trend is continuing. At least in the polar regions. I think that if you look at the temperature in the extreme latitudes you would see a clear and disturbing rise in mean temperature. Perhaps the earth has methods to compensate for temperature rise in the low and mid latitudes, but the ice near BOTH poles is rapidly declining, a clear sign that the heat is on. I love the responses from the conspiracy debunkers/tinfoilers, truly ignorant.

Answer 4

Well, not completely, but enough for the pundits to change the name to 'climate change'.

Hey, did you hear that they've found the cause of the Greenland ice melt to be the result volcanic activity under the surface rather than the effects of global warming? I wonder if they'll send Al Gore up there with a half dozen ice packs to fix the problem.

Answer 5

The fact that the global warming crew constantly screams "the debate is over!" shows how insecure and precarious their position is.

It has been observed that rising temperatures actually precede CO2 levels.... in other words, rising CO2 levels can't be the CAUSE OF rising temperatures. Scientists have also analyzed temperature proxies that consistently show a 1,500 year cycle of temperatures. It's been happening for a very long time.

Answer 6

Global warming will not stop because the Sun is getting hotter and the Earth is not the only planet getting warmer, the other planets are getting warmer and there are no humans living there, yet, anyway. This weather thing is a normal cycle that happens every 100 years. That is my very humble opinion!!

Answer 7

The threat of global warming has been reported in magazines like Time, since the 1920's, and every once in a while time magazine will re-run the same boring articles.

Yes Time Magazine, I'm onto you're cheap gimmicks to make a quick buck, thanks for being original.

Answer 8

Maybe there is very long term (thousands of years) cycle of rising and falling global temperature, and within it shorter wave cycles of smaller rises and falls?
That would imply we are either wrongly panicking about a short term rising wave that ended this year, or this year shows a very short term correction against a longer rising trend?
I'm not a scientist. And they can't agree.

Answer 9

The simple fact is no one knows and all the theory's are hypothetical. I think the earth goes through cycles and we are in a new cycle now. How severe this cycle will be is any ones guess. I know I would not have given Al Gore a Nobel Prize.

Answer 10

Global warming is the natural cycle of the earth. About twenty years ago we were hearing the same hysterical rants about the impending ice age, now we are to hot. I think it has stopped because Mother Nature has decided to cool off for a bit, not becuase of our actions.