COMMENT: Is our planet in cooling mode?

I’ve noted a trend where people are saying that global warming has halted since the warm year of 1998, and the earth is now in a cooling mode. Nothing could be further from the truth.

People who say that global warming has stopped and that we have been in a cooling mode since 1998 are either purposely trying to mislead or they are just not aware of the truth. If you only take 1998, a very hot year, and compare it to 2008, a cold year, you will be able to graph a line that will indicate cooling seems to be taking place. However, it is not correct scientific procedure to ignore the data for temperature of all the years in between 1998 and 2008. There are natural variations of temperature every year and choosing two years far apart while ignoring the years in between is misleading.

If you graph the results using temperature data (based on NASA GISS data) for all the years between the warm 1998 and cold 2008, and calculate the average, you will find that our planet has increased its mean temperature by 0.11 deg C. Similarly, if you take the decade 1998-2007 the mean temperature increase is 0.18 deg C and for the decade 1999-2008, this increase is 0.19 deg C, the same as the latest 25 year mean.

Our planet is definitely warming and ignoring this trend will leave us with a climate that bears no relation to the one that has allowed our civilization to prosper.

By Lee Norton, P.Eng., St. Catharines, Ontario

Lee Norton is an editorial advisor to Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine. His 30-minute video presentation, “Climate Disruption” can be downloaded from the CCE website at www.canadianconsultingengineer.com

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