Why has the Warming nearly flatlined Recently?

The recent near flatlining of global temperature anomalies since 2001 has been talked about a lot in the comment section of this blog and elsewhere over the past 1-2 years. An atmospheric science professor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee says that this recent flat line of temperatures does not appear to have a firm cause, unlike previous cooling events since 1950 that were influenced by strong La Nina's and volcanic eruptions.

Associate Professor Kyle Swanson and colleague Anastasios Tsonis think a series of climate processes have aligned, conspiring to chill the climate.

According to Swanson, global temperatures should have gone up .2 C or .36 F between 2001 and 2007, but instead the temperatures have been nearly flat.

So what could be the cause?

Swanson believes that there could be several reasons. Here are the two that were listed.....

1. Sinking water currents in the North Atlantic could be sucking heat down into the deeper depths.

2. Greater than normal amount of tropical cloudiness, which is reflecting more of the sun's energy back into space.

Swanson thinks the trend could continue for up to 30 years. But he warned that it's just a hiccup, and that humans' penchant for spewing greenhouse gases will certainly come back to haunt us.

Here is the link to the Discovery News article.

The study was posted in the Geophysical Research Papers.