Global temperatures will drop slightly this year as a result of the cooling effect of the La Nina current in the Pacific, UN meteorologists have said.Erm..., hold on a minute.
The World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer.
This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.
For the last ten years we've been subjected to a relentless barrage of reports, right across the media, from the IPCC, green campaigners, environmental pressure groups, think tanks, lobbyists and assorted NGOs about the dangers of rising temperatures and climate change, shrinking ice-caps and disastrous rises in sea-level. Now they're telling us there's been no global warming in the last ten years!
But, hey, it's all going to be okay it just means global warming is "taking a dip" (as the BBC's original headline put it).
"La Nina is part of what we call 'variability'. There has always been and there will always be cooler and warmer years, but what is important for climate change is that the trend is up; the climate on average is warming even if there is a temporary cooling because of La Nina."What's not mentioned is that global temperatures could drop through the floor over the next five years but the long term trend line would still show a warming over the past hundred years.
So don't worry, despite the fact that it's getting colder, scientists say it's getting warmer. And there's a consensus on that, seemingly.
Update
If you followed the link to the BBC article you might be forgiven for thinking I linked to the wrong story. Not so: some time after I posted the link, the BBC story was extensively rewritten. Dale Amon at Samizdata has some thoughts on the matter.
