Global warming may 'stop', scientists predict

[Regis Philbin]

Oh, now the "experts" say we're going to have a "lull" in global warming. But it's only for about 10 years so don't go getting all uppity and driving SUVs again.

They say "natural variations" in climate will cool us off for a while.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/30/eaclimate130.xml

Global warming may 'stop', scientists predict

By Charles Clover, Environment Editor

Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 30/04/2008

Global warming will stop until at least 2015 because of natural variations in the climate, scientists have said.

Researchers studying long-term changes in sea temperatures said they now expect a "lull" for up to a decade while natural variations in climate cancel out the increases caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

The average temperature of the sea around Europe and North America is expected to cool slightly over the decade while the tropical Pacific remains unchanged.

This would mean that the 0.3°C global average temperature rise which has been predicted for the next decade by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may not happen, according to the paper published in the scientific journal Nature.

However, the effect of rising fossil fuel emissions will mean that warming will accelerate again after 2015 when natural trends in the oceans veer back towards warming, according to the computer model.

[Regis Philbin]

It's just a "brief halt", mind you. This doesn't mean you can stop buying CFLs and driving hybrids. Keep buying those carbon credits from Al Gore's companies because we'll still need them after the "brief halt" is over.

Does this mean the ice in the Arctic will come back, albeit briefly? I guess the polar bears will get a bit of a break...temporarily.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aU.evtnk6DPo&refer=worldwide

Ocean Cooling to Briefly Halt Global Warming, Researchers Say

By Jim Efstathiou Jr.

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Parts of North America and Europe may cool naturally over the next decade, as shifting ocean currents temporarily blunt the global-warming effect caused by mankind, Germany's Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences said.

Average temperatures in areas such as California and France may drop over the next 10 years, influenced by colder flows in the North Atlantic, said a report today by the institution based in Kiel, Germany. Temperatures worldwide may stabilize in the period.

The study was based on sea-surface temperatures of currents that move heat around the world, and vary from decade to decade. This regional cooling effect may temporarily neutralize the long- term warming phenomenon caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases building up around the earth, said Richard Wood, a research scientist at the Met Office Hadley Centre, a U.K. provider of environmental and weather-related services.

``Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,'' Wood said in an interview. ``Without knowing that, you might erroneously think there's no global warming going on.''

The Leibniz study, co-written by Noel Keenlyside, a research scientist at the institute, will be published in the May 1 issue of the journal Nature.

[lions1mew]

And lets think ... WHY is the ocean cooling?

Could it be *gasp* all the melting ICE from the poles??