Global Cooling?

5 years later, evidence is still evidence

From 1993 to 2003 rising upper ocean temperatures were used to substantiate rising global temperature claims which were predicted to continue monotonically (one direction, without hitting a maximum or minimum) and indefinitely. Al Gore and his followers attribute increases in global temperature to increasing levels of carbon dioxide. Global levels of CO2 (which plants thrive on) have risen since 2003, no thanks to Al Gore--"Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006." (http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/02/gores_carbon_fo.html). Despite this, ocean temperatures have actually decreased as the earth's radiative balance has been negative from 2003-2008. In other words, based on the indicated research (see below) the earth has radiated more heat into space than it has absorbed from the sun from 2003-2008 indicating a decrease in global temperature over this time period, and disproving the monotonic global warming trend allegedly resulting from atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (see Al Gore's, "An Inconvenient Truth" for more on these claims. Beware of shady science).

Basis of using ocean temperatures

Since the oceans are a much better thermal sink than the atmosphere, and thus a better indicator of the earth's temperature (for example 2.6 meters of sea water has the same capacity to hold and store heat as the entire atmosphere above it), ocean temperature readings give a better idea of global warming/cooling trends than air temperatures. So, if you're looking to know if the earth is actually absorbing more energy than it is radiating back into space--which will ultimately determine long term temperature trends--we should focus study on ocean temperatures. In any case please read my sources as listed below. I plan to investigate the peer-reviewed articles upon which these claims (as I've presented them in summary) are based. Feel free to join me in verifying these claims by checking the sources in Energy and the Environment and other cited sources. For your convenience I'm pasting in the sources below, but here are the articles that originally caught my interest.

Article: A little bit of this and a little bit of that, with a little rant added in.
By Mike Goad

Article: The Global Warming Hypothesis and Ocean Heat
6 05 2009; Guest Post By William DiPuccio

Political Application

Before we pass legislation that will undermine the economic prosperity of a country already facing great economic distress, shouldn't we be sure we are addressing a real problem, i.e. global warming, with our political moves.

References from articles

Cazenave, A., et al., 2008: “Sea level budget over 2003-2008: A reevaluation from GRACE space gravimetry, satellite altimetry and Argo,” Glob. Planet. Change, doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2008.10.004.

Douglass, D.H., J.R. Christy, 2009: “Limits on CO2 climate forcing from recent temperature data of Earth.” Energy & Environment, Vol. 20, No. 1&2, 178-189 (13).

Hansen, J., L. Nazarenko, R. Ruedy, Mki. Sato, J. Willis, A. Del Genio, D. Koch, A. Lacis, K. Lo, S. Menon, T. Novakov, Ju. Perlwitz, G. Russell, G.A. Schmidt, and N. Tausnev, 2005: “Earth’s energy imbalance: Confirmation and implications.” Science, 308, 1431-1435.

IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M.Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. See www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-spm.pdf

Levitus, S., J.I. Antonov, J. Wang, T.L. Delworth, K.W. Dixon, and A.J. Broccoli, 2001: “Anthropogenic warming of Earth’s climate system.” Science, 292, 267-268.

Loehle, Craig, 2009: “Cooling of the global ocean since 2003.″ Energy & Environment, Vol. 20, No. 1&2, 101-104(4).

Pielke Sr., R.A., 2008: “A broader view of the role of humans in the climate system.” Physics Today, 61, Vol. 11, 54-55.

Pielke Sr., R.A., 2003: “Heat storage within the Earth system.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 84, 331-335.

Pielke Sr., R.A., “A Litmus Test For Global Warming – A Much Overdue Requirement“, climatesci.org, April 4, 2007.

Pielke Sr., R.A., “Update On A Comparison Of Upper Ocean Heat Content Changes With The GISS Model Predictions“, climatesci.org, Feb. 9, 2009.

Willis, J.K., D. Roemmich, and B. Cornuelle, 2004: “Interannual variability in upper ocean heat content, temperature, and thermosteric expansion on global scales.” J. Geophys. Res., 109, C12036.

Willis, J. K., 2008: “Is it Me, or Did the Oceans Cool?”, U.S. CLIVAR, Sept, 2008, Vol. 6, No. 2.

* William DiPuccio was a weather forecaster for the U.S. Navy, and a Meteorological/Radiosonde Technician for the National Weather Service. More recently, he served as head of the science department for St. Nicholas Orthodox School in Akron, Ohio (closed in 2006). He continues to write science curriculum, publish articles, and conduct science camps.