Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Global Warming: On Hold? (Ooops)
The Discovery Channel ("Global Warming's" premier television cheerleader) ^ | March 2, 2009 | Michael Reilly

Posted on 03/02/2009 2:50:43 PM PST by presidio9

For those who have endured this winter's frigid temperatures and today's heavy snowstorm in the Northeast, the concept of global warming may seem, well, almost wishful.

But climate is known to be variable -- a cold winter, or a few strung together doesn't mean the planet is cooling. Still, according to a new study, global warming may have hit a speed bump and could go into hiding for decades.

Earth's climate continues to confound scientists. Following a 30-year trend of warming, global temperatures have flatlined since 2001 despite rising greenhouse gas concentrations, and a heat surplus that should have cranked up the planetary thermostat.

"This is nothing like anything we've seen since 1950," Kyle Swanson of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said. "Cooling events since then had firm causes, like eruptions or large-magnitude La Ninas. This current cooling doesn't have one."

Instead, Swanson and colleague Anastasios Tsonis think a series of climate processes have aligned, conspiring to chill the climate. In 1997 and 1998, the tropical Pacific Ocean warmed rapidly in what Swanson called a "super El Nino event." It sent a shock wave through the oceans and atmosphere, jarring their circulation patterns into unison.

How does this square with temperature records from 2005-2007, by some measurements among the warmest years on record? When added up with the other four years since 2001, Swanson said the overall trend is flat, even though temperatures should have gone up by 0.2 degrees Centigrade (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) during that time.

The discrepancy gets to the heart of one of the toughest problems in climate science -- identifying the difference between natural variability (like the occasional March snowstorm) from human-induced change.

But just what's causing the cooling is a mystery. Sinking water currents in the north Atlantic Ocean could be sucking heat down into the depths. Or an overabundance of tropical clouds may be reflecting more of the sun's energy than usual back out into space.

"It is possible that a fraction of the most recent rapid warming since the 1970s was due to a free variation in climate," Isaac Held of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Princeton, New Jersey wrote in an email to Discovery News. "Suggesting that the warming might possibly slow down or even stagnate for a few years before rapid warming commences again."

Swanson thinks the trend could continue for up to 30 years. But he warned that it's just a hiccup, and that humans' penchant for spewing greenhouse gases will certainly come back to haunt us.

"When the climate kicks back out of this state, we'll have explosive warming," Swanson said. "Thirty years of greenhouse gas radiative forcing will still be there and then bang, the warming will return and be very aggressive."


TOPICS: Front Page News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; climatechange; globalcooling; globalwarming; globalwarmingtheory; snowstorm; weather; whateverwesayitmeans; winter
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-70 next last
To: freedumb2003

“A tautology is a tautology”...is a tautology. :)
4 = 4 is a tautology and so is 2 + 2 = 4.
Sometimes they are trivial and sometimes it takes a little work to realize that the 2 expressions are indeed the same, the definition of a tautology.


21 posted on 03/02/2009 3:09:26 PM PST by ari-freedom (Hail to the Dork!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy

stupid sun nut, you “sun is the center of the solar system freaks” are so nuts.

Everyone knows the earth warms due to the exhalation of politicians.


22 posted on 03/02/2009 3:12:19 PM PST by dila813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SomeCallMeTim

“Wow... these guys are amazing! THIRTY YEARS of cooling... all the while, still believing that CO2 is the culprit behind potential warming.”

They have faith in the Great Pumpkin’s return.


23 posted on 03/02/2009 3:14:24 PM PST by Magic Fingers
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Or an overabundance of tropical clouds may be reflecting more of the sun's energy than usual back out into space

The sun only gets one mention in the entire article, nust not have been written by an objective writer or scientist. Imagine that.

24 posted on 03/02/2009 3:16:11 PM PST by theymakemesick (Buraq (buh- rok) Winged creature that carried mohammed on his Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Still, according to a new study, global warming may have hit a speed bump and could go into hiding for decades.

Apparently global warming is far more tricky than previously believed. It's capable of hiding for decades to escape suspicion. Never fear, the intrepid environmentalists who are sworn to defeat global warming will never relent, not even if global warming tries to hide behind the next Ice Age.
25 posted on 03/02/2009 3:17:19 PM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SomeCallMeTim

“Thirty years of greenhouse gas radiative forcing will still be there and then bang, the warming will return and be very aggressive.”


Where does the radiative forcing hide out during the 30 years of cooling? I want to go there, now.

This is like saying that if I put hot food directly into the freezer, once it has totally frozen, it’s former heat is still lurking somewhere. I hope it isn’t adjacent to the ice cream.


26 posted on 03/02/2009 3:17:21 PM PST by reformedliberal (N0)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Swanson thinks the trend could continue for up to 30 years. But he warned that it's just a hiccup, and that humans' penchant for spewing greenhouse gases will certainly come back to haunt us.

"When the climate kicks back out of this state, we'll have explosive warming," Swanson said. "Thirty years of greenhouse gas radiative forcing will still be there and then bang, the warming will return and be very aggressive."

It's obvious that no matter the evidence that CO2 is not the culprit, they will not back off their man-caused global warming mantra. Like all politically driven scientists, they won't let new facts change their environmentally driven and biased conclusions.

27 posted on 03/02/2009 3:17:44 PM PST by CedarDave (Pray that during the next four years we don't lose the America we so love.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: presidio9

“global temperatures have flatlined since 2001”

Flatlined? Try DECLINED.


28 posted on 03/02/2009 3:20:23 PM PST by runfree
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ari-freedom
4 = 4 is a tautology and so is 2 + 2 = 4.

I know this is on a tangent but I've always like the simple fact that just because B followed A does not necessarily mean that A caused B. In modern liberal politics it is an oft used, convenient assumption/claim that proves false when examined in detail.

29 posted on 03/02/2009 3:21:58 PM PST by torchthemummy (If You Still Have A TV Subscription You Are Funding The Socialist Takeover!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: reformedliberal

My wife will be pleased if it’s next to the Pralines & Cream.... then, it’ll be easier for her to pick out all the pecans and candy!

These guys are grasping at straws... because, they can see that the WORLD is not believing them anymore.


30 posted on 03/02/2009 3:22:50 PM PST by SomeCallMeTim ( When you find yourself going through Hell, keep going!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy
Obviously, you aren't a scientist. A sophisticated, nuanced understanding of complex computer models reveals beyond doubt that climate has nothing to do with the source of almost all energy in the Solar System, no our climate is driven by a secondary greenhouse gas of which humans generate a very small amount. Care for some Kool-Aid, it makes all clear?
31 posted on 03/02/2009 3:22:54 PM PST by colorado tanker (Oh my God, am I hoping for change.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: runfree
Instead, Swanson and colleague Anastasios Tsonis think a series of climate processes have aligned, conspiring to chill the climate.

"Conspiring" to screw up our socialist political agenda is more like it.

32 posted on 03/02/2009 3:25:29 PM PST by torchthemummy (If You Still Have A TV Subscription You Are Funding The Socialist Takeover!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: colorado tanker; presidio9; Xenalyte; Bacon Man; Hap; humblegunner; Eaker; TheMom
"I'm a scientist. I do science."


33 posted on 03/02/2009 3:27:12 PM PST by Allegra
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Allegra

Hold on, Betty. Do you mean this has to do with.. science?


34 posted on 03/02/2009 3:33:37 PM PST by humblegunner (Where my PIE at, fool?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
"When the climate kicks back out of this state, we'll have explosive warming," Swanson said.

Sure, Swanson, sure. Why should we believe your wild-assed guesses? You don't have the slightest idea what the temperature is going to be next Sunday, never mind about 30 years from now.

35 posted on 03/02/2009 3:38:04 PM PST by expatpat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
>> "identifying the difference between natural variability (like the occasional March snowstorm) from human-induced change."

>> "and that humans' penchant for spewing greenhouse gases will certainly come back to haunt us."

Michael Reilly, you're a funny spewin' human kinda' guy. Next time you decide to insult the species to which you belong, back it up with hard data and not your feelings.
36 posted on 03/02/2009 3:38:59 PM PST by Gene Eric
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric

>> Michael Reilly, you’re a funny spewin’ human kinda’ guy.

Sorry Michael Reilly, it was Kyle Swanson who was to be pasted from the clipboard.


37 posted on 03/02/2009 3:43:27 PM PST by Gene Eric
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: xcamel

I notice that the Discovery Channel REFUSED (then) and REFUSES (even now) to even talk to a person not entirely committed to the global warming religion (er, hypocrazy.)


38 posted on 03/02/2009 3:45:05 PM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: expatpat
You don't have the slightest idea what the temperature is going to be next Sunday, never mind about 30 years from now.

Yup. When a politician (including many scientists nowadays) claims nice even numbers like "three decades" or "5 million new jobs" or "will cost 3 billion dollars" you can rest assure that there were no real calculations made. It's the same BS from both parties.

39 posted on 03/02/2009 3:46:45 PM PST by torchthemummy (If You Still Have A TV Subscription You Are Funding The Socialist Takeover!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: reformedliberal
Where does the radiative forcing hide out during the 30 years of cooling? I want to go there, now.

This is like saying that if I put hot food directly into the freezer, once it has totally frozen, it’s former heat is still lurking somewhere. I hope it isn’t adjacent to the ice cream.

Great analogy!

40 posted on 03/02/2009 3:47:43 PM PST by torchthemummy (If You Still Have A TV Subscription You Are Funding The Socialist Takeover!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-70 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson