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

Skip to comments.

Global Warming: On Hold? (Scientists Mystefied at lack of Warming)
Discovery ^ | March 2, 2009 | Michael Reilly

Posted on 03/03/2009 8:07:50 AM PST by GOPGuide

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 1970's 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; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: agw; globalwarming
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-82 next last
To: GOPGuide

These “scientists” are coming up with as many reasons to explain the current cold snap as medieval astronomers did to explain why Galileo’s telescope showed movement of the planets that couldn’t be explained with the earth being the center of the universe. The answer is the same as it was back then —the SUN!!


21 posted on 03/03/2009 8:18:54 AM 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: gridlock

As I told a person who was crestfallen when I stated that the earth has COOLED over the last ten years:

“Don’t worry, the true goals remain the same. Whether it’s global warming, the coming ice age, overpopulation, or some other impending disaster, someone will be able to use it to advance the cause of global socialism.”


22 posted on 03/03/2009 8:19:09 AM PST by MrB (The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, Thuggery, and Censorship)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide

>> Earth’s climate continues to confound scientists.

A concise 6-word summary of why nobody should’ve bought into “global warming” in the first place. Scientists haven’t a clue about how climate works, much less how the exhaust from my Jeep might affect it. The system is simply too complex for even the greatest human minds.

SnakeDoc


23 posted on 03/03/2009 8:20:00 AM PST by SnakeDoctor (Proud Charter Member of the Republican Resistance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide
"sinetists mystified"

mmm hmm. that's because they don't know jack.

same reason as always.

assumptions built apon hypotheses built apon models.

no REAL science could behave like that, only POLITICAL science, where the main output is political/cultural manipulation, eg globaloney & evolution.

you'd never catch a real scientist in a field that MATTERS behaving like these bozos do.




(just because it's cool)
24 posted on 03/03/2009 8:20:03 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide
It is possible that a fraction of the most recent rapid warming since the 1970's 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."

Absolutely amazing. What a religion GW must be, to cause "scientists" to throw out contrary data?

So, to recap...

Temps go up = Global Warming

Temps stay the same = Global Warming

Temps go down = Wait for Global Warming

25 posted on 03/03/2009 8:20:16 AM PST by wbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pissant

Earth Science isn’t science its fudging the facts to fit into your preconceived story.


26 posted on 03/03/2009 8:22:12 AM PST by ully2 (ully)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide
"Thirty years of greenhouse gas radiative forcing will still be there and then bang, the warming will return and be very aggressive."

27 posted on 03/03/2009 8:22:22 AM PST by ari-freedom (Hail to the Dork!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide
Cooling events since then had firm causes, like eruptions or large-magnitude La Ninas. This current cooling doesn't have one

Low sunspot activity, but that would mean that human activity has nothing to do with climate change.

Can't quite swallow that bitter pill, can ya?

28 posted on 03/03/2009 8:22:27 AM PST by Brett66 (Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: silverleaf; GOPGuide
“cool” blog here http://wattsupwiththat.com/

And here, too:


29 posted on 03/03/2009 8:22:44 AM PST by CedarDave (Pray that during the next four years we don't lose the America we so love.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide

“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.”
This is merely a weak attempt to move the goal posts. A fall-back plan to extend the charade for a generation.


30 posted on 03/03/2009 8:22:55 AM PST by Ol Rob (SOCIALISM: A great idea...'til you run out of other people's money)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide

They are committed to global warming. It has put the profession of “weather man” on the front burner, given them fame fortune, and led to huge commitments of research grants.

Does anyone imagine that this growing profession wants to shrink bank again and become a few guys on the radio who tell you whether or not to carry an umbrella to work? What would happen to all those expanding departments of meteorological science at our universities? What would happen to the climatologists at NASA?

What, divert a huge part of NASA’s budget to telling people whether or not to put on their raincoats when they leave for the train station? No more end of the world stuff? No more prime time news?


31 posted on 03/03/2009 8:23:14 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MrB

The guy who comes up with the mathematical model that blames global cooling on excess western consumerism will be the next AlGore.


32 posted on 03/03/2009 8:23:16 AM PST by gridlock (BTW, Mods... It might be time to add "Barack" and "Obama" to spellcheck)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: gridlock
Global Warming: On Hold? (Scientists Mystefied at lack of Warming)

More accurately: Global Warming: On Hold? (Global Warming Partisan Scientists Mystefied at lack of Warming, Everyone Else Is Not)
33 posted on 03/03/2009 8:24:39 AM PST by aruanan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide
Global warming takes a holiday!!

Seeing a chart of all the satellites and space debris in orbit, it's hard not to think it might have some effect on something. Hey, I think that makes me an expert!

34 posted on 03/03/2009 8:25:23 AM PST by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide
"Thirty years of greenhouse gas radiative forcing will still be there"

OK I'll bite. Be where? By what law of physics can this "waxy build up" theory be defended as anything but utter superstition? Where's the heat in the meantime - in the great computer model in the sky?

35 posted on 03/03/2009 8:25:29 AM PST by JasonC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide
Kyle Swanson of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said. "Cooling events since then had firm causes, ... This current cooling doesn't have one."

Au contrair! Kyle just hasn't identified the cause, and likely never will. Something as complex as climate will always have un-understood components to it.

36 posted on 03/03/2009 8:26:00 AM PST by RobinOfKingston (Democrats, the party of evil. Republicans, the party of stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide
Scientists Mystefied by Brassiere Hook...
37 posted on 03/03/2009 8:28:01 AM PST by gridlock (BTW, Mods... It might be time to add "Barack" and "Obama" to spellcheck)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide

"But just what's causing the cooling is a mystery."

38 posted on 03/03/2009 8:29:55 AM PST by Interesting Times (For the truth about "swift boating" see ToSetTheRecordStraight.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gridlock
"They can only ignore the data for so long"

Socialists have ignored the data on capitalism for 200 years. Read the latest budget. They can ignore reality indefinitely, and they will.

The only question before the house is when the rest of us finally get around to ignoring them.

39 posted on 03/03/2009 8:30:01 AM PST by JasonC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: GOPGuide

Scientists don’t understand long-term temperature trends.

But we better close all coal-fired power plants, give Algore as many awards as we can think of, and establish a global carbon trading scheme anyway.

I’ve wondered if temperature trends show cooling: will we build as many coal-fired power plants as we can, make people buy SUVs and make CFL/LED lightbulbs illegal? Instead of “going green”, will the new trend be to “go brown”?


40 posted on 03/03/2009 8:30:31 AM PST by kidd (Obama: The triumph of hope over evidence)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-82 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