Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Thursday, January 21, 2010 12:10:10 PM
A new study out by the American Meteorological Society, published in the Journal of Climate, suggests a couple of reasons why the climate hasn't warmed as much as predicted.
According to current best estimates of climate sensitivity, the amount of CO2 and other heat-trapping gases added to Earth's atmosphere since humanity began burning fossil fuels on a significant scale during the industrial period would be expected to result in a mean global temperature rise of 3.8°F -- well more than the 1.4°F increase that has been observed for this time span. Schwartz's analysis attributes the reasons for this discrepancy to a possible mix of two major factors: 1) Earth's climate may be less sensitive to rising greenhouse gases than currently assumed and/or 2) reflection of sunlight by haze particles in the atmosphere may be offsetting some of the expected warming.
Or, maybe, they just don't fully understand yet how the climate actually works. It is not a slap at the climate scientists, it is just a statement of what seems to be the obvious.