The British Meteorological Office has warned in a new report that the global warming “pause” was coming to an end, and the world will likely return to rapid warming. Experts said this year and the next could be the hottest on record globally. The Met Office said major changes were underway in the climate system. A natural phenomenon called El Nino is set to combine with the effects of greenhouse gases to push temperatures to record levels.
Global warming had paused since 1998
In 2013, the United Nations observed that the global warming had slowed or “paused” since 1998 compared to the increase in the preceding 50 years. Skeptics have frequently cited the UN report as contradicting evidence of the climate change. The new report comes just a couple of months ahead of a UN summit in Paris to hammer out a deal to curb global warming.
Professor Adam Scaife of the Met Office said our planet’s climate system was on a “turning point” with several major changes taking place at once. Observations of climate patterns in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans combined with record temperatures in 2014 and expectations of an all-time high temperatures in 2015 and 2016 suggest that the global warming “pause” was coming to an end.
El Nino only the ‘icing on the cake’
However, experts said other changes in the Atlantic Ocean in the next few decades could make cooler and drier summers in the UK and northern Europe more likely. Experts are confident that the El Nino phenomenon of surface warming is set to peak this winter. Its scale will be similar to the 1998 El Nino that drove global temperatures to near record highs.
Natural events like El Nino are just the “icing on the cake.” El Ninos have occurred since we were cavemen. The evidence of variations in the Atlantic Ocean dates back to 1,000 years. Most of these events occur without the influence of humans. Human activity is pouring huge amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Rising amount of greenhouse gases coupled with such natural events could intensify global warming.
