The world imagined a ‘hiatus’ in global warming. Mired in economic crisis, that was simply what it wanted to hear.
In the past 15 years, the world has not warmed in the same scale as it has been doing since 1951, read headlines across the world in the first week of September. There is a “hiatus” in global warming, media reports stated, quoting a draft of an upcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
A source in the know of the drafting process at the IPCC had leaked the draft of the Summary for Policymakers of the Working Group 1 to Assessment Report 5. This draft contained the assertion on the hiatus.
It read: “Global mean surface temperature trends exhibit substantial decadal variability despite the robust multi-decadal warming since 1901. The rate of warming over the past 15 years (1998-2012; 0.05 °C per decade) is smaller than the trend since 1951 (1951-2012; 0.12°C per decade).”
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/global-warming-is-here-to-stay/article5201483.ece
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