Report: Global Warning Ended 16 Years Ago

By Newsroom America Staff at 15 Oct 2012

(Newsroom America) -- New research indicates that so-called global warming ended some 16 years ago, according to the British Meteorological Office, which has quietly released its findings on the Internet.

The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, "stands in sharp contrast to the release of the previous figures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year," Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported Monday.

The Met Office's data shows that temperatures reached a plateau beginning in 1997 and that the warming trend seen in the previous 16 years essentially ended.

Scientists disagreed over the findings, the paper said. Prof. Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, who said 15-16 years' worth of data is not enough to signal a trend.

But Prof. Judith Curry, head of the climate science department at Georgia Tech University, said it was clear that previous computer models predicting an endless cycle of warming were "deeply flawed."

Jones said he was convinced that the current decade would still see a generally warming planet.

The findings are liable to have an impact on future public policy debates and decisions, the paper said.

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