Investments in Renewable Energy Being Questioned Following Hiatus of Global Warming
With the world now experiencing a slowing global warming, sceptics have started questioning the importance and necessity of the investments made into renewable energy by all member nations of planet Earth. But science bodies in the U.S. and UK assured the investments remain well in track as the warming hiatus is just temporary.
While there has been a short-term slowdown in the warming of Earth's surface since the exceptionally warm 1998, that "does not invalidate our understanding of long-term changes in global temperature arising from human-induced changes in greenhouse gases," according to a report by Britain's Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists continue to find the case for the warming hiatus. Some attributed it to the shifts in the oceans that are absorbing more heat from the atmosphere. Others suggested the sun-dimming volcanic eruptions or a lower output from the sun contribute to the slowdown.
If the Pacific winds were to be believed, the current hiatus could persist until nearly 2020.
Scientists from Britain's Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences cautioned the hiatus will just be temporary and that the planet would warm further this century. Nations may well expect more extreme heatwaves, droughts and rising seas.
In a study by scientists in Switzerland, Australia and Canada released in the journal Nature Climate Change, they said there continued an "increase of hot extremes over land (even) during the so-called global warming hiatus."
In fact, record heatwaves had struck in the latter years - Australia in 2013, the United States in 2012, Russia in 2010 and Europe in 2003. There might have been cold snaps, but these were only few.
"There is no reason to expect the (trend towards more hot extremes) to stop," lead author Sonia Seneviratne, of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich, told Reuters.
Thirteen out of the 14 warmest years on record had been since 2000.
"I would not call that a pause in global temperature increases," Michel Jarraud, head of the WMO, said.