Behind the present pause in global warming - Capital Weather Gang - The Washington Post

* Scientist Susan Solomon published a study in Science in 2010 stating: “Stratospheric water vapor concentrations decreased by about 10% after the year 2000. Here we show that this acted to slow the rate of increase in global surface temperature over 2000–2009 by about 25% compared to that which would have occurred due only to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.”

* A 2011 study, also discussed by CWG’s Freedman, found reflective particles ejected into the atmosphere from coal burning in China may have offset part of the warming.

* Solar scientist Judith Lean at the Naval Research Laboratory points to the recent solar minimum. As reported in Greenwire: “According to Lean, the combination of multiple La Niñas and the solar minimum, bottoming out for an unusually extended time in 2008 from its peak in 2001, are all that’s needed to cancel out the increased warming from rising greenhouse gases. Now that the sun has begun to gain in activity again, Lean suspects that temperatures will rise in parallel as the sun peaks around 2014.”

So there are plenty of compelling reasons that together do a good job of explaining the lack of warming in recent years.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New paper contradicts a tenet of global warming theory

A paper published today in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics finds that clouds located in the stratosphere over the poles act to cool the stratosphere by adiabatic cooling, which is the cooling of air parcels as they rise and expand, rather than by 'trapping heat' below the clouds resulting in 'radiative cooling' of the stratosphere above. This finding contradicts a tenet of AGW theory, which predicts that infrared radiation from greenhouse gases will 'trap heat' to create a 'hot spot' in the troposphere and cooling of the stratosphere. This study finds that cooling of the stratosphere is instead due to rising air parcels rather than a decrease in radiation due to heat 'trapped by greenhouse gases'.

The Highest Authority in Science is the Data « JoNova: Science, carbon, climate and tax

The alarmists may have “experts”, but the skeptics have the data.

California’s Green Mirage - By Chuck DeVore - Planet Gore - National Review Online

By the way, in the past 12 months, an additional 36,400 people were employed in Texas’ oil and gas fields — a greater number than California’s entire solar sector employment base of 33,000.

So, while the “green” economy continues to promise, the real economy prospers.