Global Warming Slowdown Complicates IPCC’s Job

Scientists preparing the much-awaited report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are in a quandary over data that go against the body’s broad conclusions on carbon emissions and a warming planet. In an exclusive report based on leaked documents the Associated Press says that scientists are puzzled by data suggesting that “global warming has slowed in the past 15 years even though carbon emissions keep rising.” The IPCC report is expected to strongly reaffirm the anthropogenic connection to the trend of global warming. But the scientists are under pressure to explain the anomalous fact of slowed warming in the past 15 years so that skeptics who doubt a human role in global warming cannot cast doubt on the broad conclusion. Some scientists suggest that the recent warming trend could be due to heat going deep into the ocean and natural climate fluctuations. – YaleGlobal