Globe Allegedly Warming Despite Winter Freeze

When you're warm, it means everybody's going to die, and it's your fault.  When you're cold, it's just a cognitive problem

Berlin. “Where is global warming, now that we need it?” a comedian asked on German public television ARD, as millions of people throughout Europe coped with winter’s deep-freeze this week.

Across Europe people have been asking the same question: if the globe is getting warmer, why is Europe so cold?

But the question really is whether recent winters, taken together, have been too warm. Yes, say climate researchers, they have.

“There is a cognitive problem among the public,” said Mojib Latif, climate researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Ocean Sciences at Gerrmany’s University of Kiel.

“Because winters over the past 20 years have been warmer than the older average, many now believe that this winter is particularly cold. But it is not.”

“Of course, it is really cold right now,” said Fortunat Joos, professor of climate and environmental physics at the University of Bern in Switzerland. “But present temperatures represent only a fluctuation in the trend of the past 20 years. In general, the earth is getting warmer.