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2008: The year the world will cool down
Last updated at 22:52pm on 07.04.08The world will experience global cooling this year, according a leading climate scientist.
The head of the World Meteorological Organisation said La Nina - the weather phenomenon which is cooling the Pacific - is likely to trigger a small drop in average global temperatures compared with last year.
The prediction - which follows a bitterly cold winter in China and the Arctic - is prompting some sceptics to question the theory of climate change.
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The news that the earth appears to be cooling would seem to contradict most experts who say that global warming is melting ice at the Poles
However, the World Meteorological Organisation insists that this year's cooling has nothing to do with global climate change.
In fact, this year's temperatures could still be way above the average - and it is possible that 2008 will exceed the record year of 1998 because of global warming induced by greenhouse gases.
La Nina is Spanish for "The Girl" and describes a cooling of the central and eastern Pacific.
It typically lasts for 12 months. In recent months it caused one of the coldest winters in memory in China, and brought torrential rains to Australia.
While La Nina can affect weather around the world, it is usually less of an influence than El Nino (The Boy). In an El Nino year, the Pacific warms up.
Michel Jarraud, the World Meteorological Organisation's secretary general, said La Nina was expected to continue into the summer, depressing global temperatures by a fraction of a degree.
But he said temperatures in 2008 would still be well above average for the last 100 years.
The Met Office predicts that 2008 will be around 0.4C warmer than the average for 1961-1990.
It said temperatures are influenced by a range of variables - including changes in the sun's output, pollution and weather cycles such as La Nina.
But most scientists argue that the long-term temperature rises since 1880 can only be explained by carbon dioxide from human activity.
Reader views (7)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Individual years are weather, not climate. It doesn't make sense to consider climate change in terms of anything less than decade-long averages. And those averages are indeed getting hotter.
Also the UK's weather has always been, and remains, unpredictable and changeable. It's an interesting fact that they don't have daily weather forecasts on TV in much of the rest of the world, because the weather will predictably do much the same every day, changing only with the seasons.
- Nigel, London
Do you believe what the global warming specialist tell us or what the bandwagon politicians say?
- Bill, London
The World Meteorological Organisation also does not seem to provide any insight into the effect of the the changing Sun and its ever-changing energy output. Everyone on the AGW gravy train completely dismisses the huge impact of the Sun, while inflating the impact of CO2, which is a minuscule part of our atmosphere.
- F, Pittsburgh, PA
Unfortunately the report has several errors which should be addressed.
Nasa recently published a correction to its previous temperature records. Teh hottest year on record was 1934 not 1998.
Last year was one of the coldest this century. This year is forecast to be even colder than 2007 so is not "above average" by any measure
Global temperatures have not increased in the past 10 years. Averages have even come down over that period
Sea temperatures (previously identified as a justification of global warming) have not increased in the past 5 years with Arctic temperatures dropping.
Which ever way you look at it this report does not cover the whole truth.
- Phil B, Leicester
So let's get this straight. Global Warming (TM) is going to make things cooler. Right?
- Adam, Harrow, UK
So, global warming has ended has it? I can well believe it following the dismal cold April we have had so far and the sub zero temperatures over easter weekend and the last two days!
- William Grierson, Kimpton, UK
But what the World Meteorological Organisation also forget to mention because they want to keep on the climate change gravy train, is that the world temperature has not raised since 1998. Why haven't they and the whole environment industry told the general public this fact instead of whipping up hysteria and telling us that any bad storm has been caused by global warming.
- D, London, UK
