Cooler Pacific ‘Is Slowing Warming’ [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Cooler Pacific ‘Is Slowing Warming’
Posted on Aug 31, 2013
By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network

LONDON—Scientists believe they have made significant progress towards explaining why global average surface temperatures have risen more slowly this century than previously.

They say cooling waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean have played a large part in slowing recent warming, a finding which challenges those who argue that the slowdown means climate change is not as serious a problem as most climate scientists are convinced it is.

Before 2000 global temperatures had risen at a rate of 0.13ºC per decade since 1950. The hiatus has occurred while levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from human activities, continued a steady rise, reaching 400 parts per million for the first time in human history in May this year.

The eastern tropical Pacific has been distinctly cooler in the last few years, thanks to the influence of one of the world’s biggest ocean circulation systems, the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO).

More:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/cooler_pacific_is_slowing_warming_20130831/