Talk about spin, the headlines read “2008 is the 8th warmest year on record”, with the subheading that 2008 was the coldest year since 2000. From the graphs for both the global water surface temperature and global land/water surface temperature, the trend since 1998 is either sideways or slightly downward.
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2008/
The downward trend is most clear from the water surface measurements, which may be a clue as to the root cause. The melting ice sheets and glaciers may be absorbing enough latent heat of fusion (heat required for phase change), to forestall global warming of the air. Moreover, adding water near the freezing point to the world’s water bodies may be contributing to the cooling surface temperature of the world's oceans. If the anthropogenically added CO2 is the cause for the melt down, then humans are causing global cooling as well! Although there may be a feedback loop here (cooler oceans absorb more CO2), I’ll freely admit to spinning my headline against the AGW hypothesis (turnabout is fair play).
What do the scientists out there say about the recent downtrend?
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2008/
The downward trend is most clear from the water surface measurements, which may be a clue as to the root cause. The melting ice sheets and glaciers may be absorbing enough latent heat of fusion (heat required for phase change), to forestall global warming of the air. Moreover, adding water near the freezing point to the world’s water bodies may be contributing to the cooling surface temperature of the world's oceans. If the anthropogenically added CO2 is the cause for the melt down, then humans are causing global cooling as well! Although there may be a feedback loop here (cooler oceans absorb more CO2), I’ll freely admit to spinning my headline against the AGW hypothesis (turnabout is fair play).
What do the scientists out there say about the recent downtrend?
"Praise the Lord for the expanding grandeur of creation, worlds known and unknown, galaxies beyond galaxies, filling us with awe and challenging our imaginations." 2007 Reform Siddur
