Environment

More Evidence There Is No 'Pause' in Global Warming

Despite what skeptics claim, the earth is on track for even hotter days ahead.
Drought affected land is seen in the Las Canoas dam near San Francisco Libre in Nicaragua, July 18, 2014. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

Here's an argument that gets thrown around a lot by climate-change skeptics: Since 1998, the average rate of global warming slowed to 0.09 degrees per decade, compared with 0.22 degrees during the decades up to then after 1951. This slowed heating, which was not predicted by many computer models, is proof that we don't know what the future will be like and should all stop stressing over climate change.

The Cato Institute's Patrick Michaels and Paul "Chip" Knappenberger were among the most recent skeptics to push this talking point. Here was their takeaway on the yet-unknown "mechanism" behind the reduced warming: