Haven't we had 'global cooling' lately?


See all questions and answers
Read about the project
Haven't we had "global cooling" lately?
Just as any April in a city such as New York will see a few cold snaps, the long term trend for climate change is still getting warmer. Photograph: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

The planet did cool slightly from the 1940s to the 1970s, mainly in the northern hemisphere and most likely a result of the post-war boom in industrial aerosol pollutants that bounce sunlight away from the Earth. Despite a flurry of 1970s media reports on an imminent ice age, there was never anything approaching a scientific consensus on the likelihood of further cooling, and it appears that greenhouse warming has long since eclipsed the mid-century cool spell.

After temperatures reached a new global high in 1998, the following decade saw smaller ups and downs. The absence of another show-stopping record led many sceptics and pundits to claim that global warming 'stopped' in 1998. In truth, however, nobody expects the global average temperature to rise smoothly from one year to the next. Just as any April in London, New York or Beijing will see a few cold snaps, we can expect long-term warming to be punctuated by periods of little rise in global temperature, or even slight cooling, that could last for a few years. As for record warm years, these will likely coincide with El Niño conditions, which occur as part of a natural cycle in the Pacific Ocean.

In early 2011, the World Meteorological Organization announced that 2010 was the joint hottest year on record, along with 1998 and 2005.

This is an extract from The Rough Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson.

The ultimate climate change FAQ

This answer last updated: 03.03.2011
Read about the project and suggest a question
Report an error in this answer

Related questions
Is the world really getting warmer?
Are humans definitely causing the warming?
What are climate change feedback loops?