Science & Technology

Global warming 'on pause'

By T.K. Randall
July 23, 2013 ·  183 comments

Image Credit: CC 3.0 R N Marshman While figures suggest that average global temperatures have not risen at all in the last 15 years, new reports have emerged claiming that this is likely to change within as little as 5 years. Far from playing down the significance of global warming, the research has indicated that temperature rises have simply been delayed because the world's oceans have been absorbing a lot of the heat.

"Global surface temperatures remain high," said the Met Office's Dr Peter Stott. "Twelve of the 14 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000, the lower troposphere – the atmosphere above the surface – is continuing to warm in recent years, and combined with the cooling in the stratosphere this is a distinctive fingerprint of the effects of greenhouse gases on the climate system."[!gad]While figures suggest that average global temperatures have not risen at all in the last 15 years, new reports have emerged claiming that this is likely to change within as little as 5 years. Far from playing down the significance of global warming, the research has indicated that temperature rises have simply been delayed because the world's oceans have been absorbing a lot of the heat.

"Global surface temperatures remain high," said the Met Office's Dr Peter Stott. "Twelve of the 14 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000, the lower troposphere – the atmosphere above the surface – is continuing to warm in recent years, and combined with the cooling in the stratosphere this is a distinctive fingerprint of the effects of greenhouse gases on the climate system."

Source: Telegraph | Comments (183)

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