The Arctic conditions which have brought Britain to a standstill over the past week could be the start of a "pause" in global warming, some scientists believe.

The world could be in for a spell of cooler temperatures, rather than hotter conditions, as a result of cyclical changes in ocean currents for the next 20 or 30 years, it is predicted.
Research by Professor Mojib Latif, one of the world's leading climate modellers, questions the widely held view that global temperatures will rise rapidly over the coming years.
But Prof Latif, of the Leibniz Institute at Germany's Kiel University and an author for the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), believes that the cool spell will only be a temporary interruption to climate change.
He told a UN conference in September that changes in ocean currents known as North Atlantic Oscillation could dominate over man-made global warming for the next few decades.
Controversially, he also said that the fluctuations could also be responsible for much of the rise in global temperatures seen over the past 30 years.
Prof Latif told one newspaper at the weekend: "A significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th Century was due to these cycles – perhaps as much as 50 per cent.
"They have now gone into reverse, so winters like this one will become much more likely.
"Summers will also probably be cooler, and all this may well last two decades or longer.
"The extreme retreats that we have seen in glaciers and sea ice will come to a halt.
"For the time being, global warming has paused, and there may well be some cooling."
But Prof Latif believes that the pause represents only a temporary respite rather than a challenge to the basis of global warming.
Source

What happened to the ozone hole? What happened to the predicted New Ice Age that we were going to get before the global warming became the vogue? It's all about taxation and milking money out of people. Al Gore and the UN head nebby for climate change all have financial fingers in the mult-billion pie, along with the Tata's and all the other big industrialists. We've all been took again.

Mother earth is sorting it all out, as i always thought she would.

Your comments Bandy, are 101% spot on ! Taxation (above all), vested interests, multinational rip-off merchants. All outpacing each other to pull the wool over our eyes and empty our wallets.

Whether we die of thirst/hunger in the desert that was once the UK or try and poke our way out of a 500' ice cap that will sit on top of us - it's purely acedemic ! What will happen to Mother Earth in the next xxxx years will happen. There's knack-all we can do about it FULL STOP !

If we stopped chucking ANYTHING in the atmosphere as of today, it ain't going help a jot.

Buying useless so-called energy efficient lamps (guffaw) might make you feel good inside. All it does is make the sharholders of Philips, GEC, Siemens etc. grin their way to the bank and light up another big fat cigar !

Make a note of this..... Once the sale of all the various wattages of filament lamps have been banned (a rolling EU prog.is under way), just watch the prices of compact flourecents go throught the roof. You won't be able to buy anything else. You will be squeezed 'til your pips squeak. Nowt new there then !

Here endeth the rant.

I hate energy-saving bulbs - they make me feel crap. They are so dim. Bring back the 100w incandescent lightbulb!!

are you sure its the bulb

These energy saving bulbs have mercury in them as well. Where are they going to be ditched when they pack in and what about the toxic mercury waste from the places that manufacture them. They don't think these things through they just push legislation. We are lions led by donkeys alright.

Exactly Bandy and if you smash one you have to be flippin careful how you clean up and will the Council mind it going in your domestic waste and then into a landfill, where the mercury will leech into the water table?

bert, I am a bit dim yes and it often takes time for my brain to warm up.

Its 6 of one and half a dozen of the other...

Just as we have cold temps here, Melbourne, Australia had a record high for night temperature last night 37Deg C!!

The Earth has been heating up and cooling down for millions of years and there are many factors which affect the rate in which the temperature changes. The way in which temperature measurements are taken is another factor; consider mean temperature; how hot the temperature gets in the day compared to how cool the temperature gets at night.

As many measurements are taken in cities something called 'urban heat island' effects the measurements. Consider tarmac, concrete and buildings that absorb heat in the day and release it at night. The change in landscape is also another factor as trees and building affect local wind patterns. Temperatures may not be getting any hotter during the day, but they aren't cooling as much in the night.

I've often thought that "climate change" when spoke of my governments is just the boogeyman; an excuse to raise taxes for the sake of the environment. I've given up my car to travel to work in because parking and traffic are a problem and if I don't ride my bike I get fat, not for the sake of climate change.

Viable alternatives need to be provided to cars if people are going to give them up. This is what really pisses me off about the borderlands line. How long has there been talk of electrification and a station in Prenton?

Energy saving light bulbs are a waste of time. There are numerous better ways to save energy including:

* Raising the voltage of the national grid
* Trading more with other countries (HVDC interconnects)
* better insulation
* Better heating control
* and most importantly, turning shit off.

It's all a load of bullshit!!!! as Neil says there are many factors to climate change and I personally believe it will happen regardless of what we as a race do.
Common sense and history tells us that the climate changes of it's own accord....Millions of years ago Africa and Australia used to be lush green land (evidence the planet got warmer) also millions of years ago there was an ice age (evidence the planet cooled down) for whatever reason caused these two global events it was natural.

The governments say we need to reduce carbon emmisions..They would have to create some form of population control.
There are an estimated 3,000,000 babies born everyday world wide and every single breath,every single one of us takes we are releasing carbon dioxide.

No amount of taxation will fix this so called problem.

[quote/]
The governments say we need to reduce carbon emmisions..They would have to create some form of population control.
There are an estimated 3,000,000 babies born everyday world wide and every single breath,every single one of us takes we are releasing carbon dioxide.


[/quote] how many people die a day to offset the carbon emissions of the newborn?

I'm for reducing pollution in cities as I don't like breathing in fumes, especially when I'm riding my bike. Electric cars are one of the ways forward and will help reduce reliance on fossil fuel; hopefully the recent accident will help put emphasis on the need to change ways.

I like ditching the car whenever I can, but riding on roads in the UK is just too dangerous. Look at cities like Chester, the roads are inefficient, the best thing that can be done is to knock stuff down and start again when the opportunities present themselves. Holding onto the past too much is never a good thing.

What's wrong with fossil fuel cars?
* Inefficient
* Dangerous - carrying extremely flamable fuel
* Too many moving parts leads to excessive maintenance
* Too dirty

The problem with electricity is that it doesn't store very well so currently the best way is to produce it is on a large scale. Renewable energy sources current meet about 5% of the needs of the UK. I don't think things will change significantly until commerical nuclear fusion becomes an option. I'm convinced that whatever the end solution for energy, electricity will be part of it.

not enough RUDEBOX as again we are constantly getting told that people are living a lot longer these days due to more excersize,diet and healthcare.

Just look at China's massive growth rate and that is already one of the worlds most dencely populated countries and they already have a population control system in place.Also we now have girls giving birth in their early teens who a grans in there 30's.