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Global warming? Next decade could be cooler
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Global warming? Next decade could be cooler, says study

Wed Apr 30, 1:34 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - Global warming could take a break in the next decade
thanks to a natural shift in ocean circulations, although Earth's
temperature will rise as previously expected over the longer term,
according to a study published on Thursday in the British journal Nature.

Climate scientists in Germany base the prediction on what they believe
is an impending change in the Gulf Stream -- the conveyor belt that
transports warm surface water from the tropical Atlantic to the
northern Atlantic and returns cold water southwards at depth.

The Gulf Stream will temporarily weaken over the next decade, in line
with what has happened regularly in the past, the researchers say.

This will lead to slightly cooler temperatures in the North Atlantic
and in North America and Europe, and also help the temperatures in the
tropical Pacific to remain stable, they suggest.

Last year, scientists in the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) said that by 2100, global average surface temperatures
could rise by between 1.1 C and 6.4 C (1.98 and 11.52 F) compared to
1980-99 levels.

In the next 20 years alone, the global climate would warm by around
0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, the IPCC said.

These calculations are based on atmospheric concentrations of carbon
gases -- the famous "greenhouse effect" in which solar heat is stored
in the air rather than released into space.

The heat is eventually transferred to the sea and land, ultimately
disrupting Earth's complex climate system.

Climate experts have long warned, though, that warming is unlikely to
be a gradual trend, but a movement in stops and starts.

The main reason for this is that the oceans -- the biggest store of
heat -- go through natural cycles of circulation.

The long churning of the seas can have a far-reaching effect,
sometimes delaying for years the moment when the stored warmth is
released at the surface.

The authors of the new study stress that they do not dispute the
IPCC's figures.

"Just to make things clear, we are not stating that anthropogenic
[man-made] climate change won't be as bad as previously thought," said
Mojib Latif, a professor at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences
in Kiel, northern Germany.

"What we are saying is that on top of the warming trend, there is a
long-periodic oscillation that will probably lead to a lower
temperature increase than we would expect from the current trend
during the next years."

Fellow author Johann Jungclaus of the Max Planck Institute for
Meteorology in Hamburg, likened the trend to "driving from the coast
to a mountainous area and crossing some hills and valleys before you
reach the top."

In some years, the natural long-term variation in ocean circulation
would work in the other direction, temporarily pushing on the warming
accelerator, Jungclaus warned.

In a commentary also published by Nature, Richard Wood, a scientist at
Britain's Hadley Centre for climate change, said it was useful to get
some idea about the jagged variability of global warming.

Such information could be precious for planners seeking to beef up
protection against the impact of climate change, and who need to know
when these expensive defences have to be completed.

But Wood queried the study's focus on the Gulf Stream, saying its
turnover was affected not just by temperature but also by saltiness.

The salinity of water entering the North Atlantic is being affected by
meltwater running off Greenland glaciers and Siberian permafrost, and
some research suggests this is already slowing the conveyor belt.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080430/sc_afp/scienceclimatewarming_080430173430



May 1, 2008 | 2:00 PM Comments  0 comments

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