Atmospheric dry spell eases global warming

Various : A new study in Science magazine helps explain why the planet didn’t warm up dramatically over the course of the past decade, even though the gases that cause global warming increased dramatically.Scientists have identified a surprising phenomenon in water vapor 10 miles above our heads that explains part of this unexpected pause in warming.

The concentration of water vapor at this altitude has dropped by 10%, triggered by unexplained cooler temperatures at certain high altitudes above the tropics. The study concludes that in the last decade the decline in water vapor slowed the rate of rising temperatures by about 25%, thus partly negating the heat-trapping effect of increasing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.The recent flattening of temperatures since the year 2000 has added credence to climate-change skeptics, who claim that global warming is not happening. This study increases the likelihood that it is a blip, and warming remains a long-term trend. The researchers do call however for a “closer examination” of the way climate computer models consider water vapor.A number of publications reported the news, including NPR , the Wall Street Journal , the Guardian.