Science and Health

Global warming not fading away despite cold snap

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-12-29 11:20

CANBERRA - Near-record floods in Australia and a big chill in the northern hemisphere does not mean global warming is fading away, Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) scientist said on Wednesday.

Related readings:  CRI launches environmental protection project  Cancun climate deal holds out hope  UN should remain mechanism for climate talks: expert  Govt plans for output losses due to climate change

Eastern Australia is experiencing one of its wettest-ever second six months on record, while Europe and North America have been deluged by severe snowstorms and freezing conditions.

According to Barry Hunt, an honorary research fellow at the CSIRO's Marine and Atmospheric Research unit, even if there is another cold snap global temperatures will continue to rise.

"Over the last century, the global mean temperature has gone up by 0.8 degrees (Celsius)," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday, adding that was due to global warming.

"But at the same time, we also have natural climatic variation, and you don't get one or the other, you get them both. They interact."

Hunt has found that there still will be cold snaps up to 2050 even with greenhouse warming, and he maintained that the scientific basis for global warming is "very sound".

He said the basic long-term trend over the next 100 years is for a steady global warming, and Australia will expect to see rainfall decline, and there will be a long-term drying trend over most of Australia.