As CO2 is increasing, why are temperatures decreasing?

Question

As CO2 is increasing, why are temperatures decreasing?

Answer 1

Temperatures are decreasing because it's winter, moron.

Actually, temperatures are increasing. If you've ever watched anything about this on the Discovery channel it says that like over the past century the average yearly temperature has gone up by like 2 degrees farhrenheit. Personally, I think global warming is just like a reverse ice age. The ice age happened 10,000 years ago, so now the Earth is having a heat spell. I think it will go away.

Answer 2

You provide absolutely no evidence to back up your question.

Here is where this argument falls apart.

You're saying that it has been cooler for the last ten years. That is debatable, but more importantly, it is always used as a skeptic argument, because it chooses 1998 as the starting point. 1998 was the strongest El Nino of the last 100 years, a very warm year because of that cyclical phenomena. That is known as cherry picking, using an anomaly, or statistical noise, as a yardstick for measuring against other data.

"Cherry picking is about choosing data for the sole purpose of supporting a pre-conceived conclusion."

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/11...

Skeptic argument:

"Global temperatures have been trending down since 1998. Global warming is over."

Answer:

"At the time, 1998 was a record high year in both the CRU and the NASA GISS analyses. In fact, it blew away the previous record by .2 degrees C. (That previous record went all the way back to 1997, by the way!)"

"According to NASA, it was elevated far above the trend line because 1998 was the year of the strongest El Nino of the century. Choosing that year as a starting point is a classic cherry pick and demonstrates why it is necessary to remove chaotic year-to year-variability (aka: weather) by smoothing out the data. "

"Clearly 1998 is an anomaly and the trend has not reversed. (Even the apparent leveling at the end is not the real smoothing. The smoothed trend in 2005 depends on all of its surrounding years, including a few years still in the future.) By the way, choosing the CRU analysis is also a cherry pick -- NASA has 2005 breaking the 1998 record, though by very little."

"Now, this is an excusable mistake for average folks who do not need the rigors of statistical analysis in their day jobs. But any scientist in pretty much any field knows that you cannot extract meaningful information about trends in noisy data from single-year end points. It's hard to hear a scientist make this argument and still believe they speak with integrity in this debate -- seems more like an abuse of the trust placed in them as scientists. "

"It has stopped warming" is only supported by selecting a single year out of context and using a seven-year window to look at multi-decadal trends in climate. That's a classic cherry pick."

Answer 3

Because as the polar ice caps melt ICE is dropped into the ocean thus cooling the ocean....something like putting ice in your drink,if the drink were large enough it would cool the room.

Answer 4

lol, so poster said that the Earth Mother was fighting back. Come on. Are you serious? People actually believe the earth is a sentient being capable of fighting back? Good Lord... the wisdom of man truly is foolishness. I suppose temperatures are decreasing because the Earth is able to regulate itself regardless of our actions.

Answer 5

Because our dear Mother Earth is fighting back against insidious Global Warming with everything she's got.

We have attacked our Earth Mother, and she is vigorously defending herself, using every available tool (clouds, rain, wind, oceans) to counter our relentless attacks.  The more we increase the global temperature, the more she will counter our treacherous moves.  Hence, we are experiencing really cold winters and shortened summers.

If we don't watch it, our stubborn refusal to combat global warming will result in us practically freezing to death !!!

Answer 6

Yes we had a cold winter, the coldest in the past decade.  However the planet continues to get warmer, as that very same winter was the 15th warmest in the past century.  Do you have any other questions?

Answer 7

They're not, on an average basis.  There are short term fluctuations up and down, but the trend is still up.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/

Answer 8

Its getting warmer where I live; snow drifts are melting and ponds are getting dangerous to walk on.   You living down under somewhere?

Answer 9

Sorry...my fault.  I've been eating more beef lately (less methane-producing cattle).

Answer 10

I personally think that the temperature's are not exactly decreasing, just that the climate is getting more and more inconsistant... In my region it was 3 degrees celsius one day, then -27 two days later...

Answer 11

You are right temps are decreasing since 1998 even the IPCC admits this.

So it is because CO2 is not a pollutant and is not causing global anything except global AGW greed for our hard earned money through fruity carbon taxes.

Answer 12

Which one of these 3 plotted global temperature datasets do you think is decreasing?

http://tamino.files.wordpress.com/2008/0...

I'd encourage you to take a numerical analysis course in college, then you might be able to understand the difference between noise and trends.

Answer 13

Because Co2 isn't a big greenhouse gas I guess......................................

Answer 14

link to the facts. See http://www.globalwarminghappens.com