[cogitator]

The average temperature of the earth has not warmed over the past 8 years.

Boy, if I ever hear this one again...

1998 was an El Nino year, and El Nino years are years with higher-than-average global warmth. The next year was a La Nina year, and it was colder. In the ensuing years, the global temperature anomaly has been between the 1998 record and the 1999 subsequent minimum, and (with variability), the years have gotten warmer -- to the point that 2005 was almost as warm (some analyses indicate "as warm") as 1998, without an El Nino event. This last datum indicates that the warming trend is still ongoing.

[Sicon]

1998 was an El Nino year, and El Nino years are years with higher-than-average global warmth. The next year was a La Nina year, and it was colder. In the ensuing years, the global temperature anomaly has been between the 1998 record and the 1999 subsequent minimum, and (with variability), the years have gotten warmer -- to the point that 2005 was almost as warm (some analyses indicate "as warm") as 1998, without an El Nino event. This last datum indicates that the warming trend is still ongoing.

So... based on a whole 7 years worth of "data", you actually feel comfortable in suggesting that this represents a significant "warming trend", and even further, that human activity is somehow responsible?

[StopGlobalWhining]

You probably wouldn't believe it if I told you that Antarctica has been cooling since 1986. Check it out, or if you prefer, I'll send you some peer-referred journal citations.

The Antactic peninsula has warmed, but the cooling in the interior has resulted in a net cooling during the past 20 years. An inconvenient truth.