Forex Latest News - INTERVIEW-2008 set to be about 10th warmest year-expert

OSLO, Nov 11 (Reuters) - This year is on track to be about the 10th warmest globally since records began in 1850 but gaps in Arctic data mean the world may be slightly underestimating global warming, a leading scientist said on Tuesday.

A natural cooling of the Pacific Ocean known as La Nina kept a lid on temperatures in 2008 despite an underlying warming trend, said Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England.

"This year is about 10th," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. "La Nina in the Pacific lasted longer than we envisaged."

Jones's unit is one of the main sources of global climate data for the United Nations.

The warmest year on record was 1998, followed by 2005 and 2003, with other years this century closely bunched. Tenth place would make 2008 the least warm since 1999.

Slow-growing black walnuts are an investment

Our walnut tree is a little nut shy this year, probably because of the Easter freeze that also deprived us of most of the fruit production in our yard. However, Hammons Products in Stockton, one of the only commercial black walnut shelling businesses in the United States, predicts a decent though spotty harvest in its 15-state territory. It projects that a potential 25-million-pound harvest might be reduced to between 14 and 17 million by hungry squirrels because the late frost negatively affected acorn production, the bushy-tailed animal’s favorite meal. Deer, woodpeckers and foxes also enjoy them.

Elias: Greenhouse gas plan might aid economy : Opinion Columnists : Redding Record Searchlight

Vocal skeptics were out in force from the moment California's Air Resources Board released the newest version of its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent before 2020.

"This plan closes California to business," said Steve Frank, former president of the California Republican Assembly and a longtime doubter of global warming, also often called climate change. "Costs and regulations would make this a non-profit state - operate here and the state takes your profit. Freedom was nice, while we had it."