Thanks to a strong La Niña, this upcoming year is likely to have lower average global temperatures than have occurred since 2000, according to U.K. forecasters. (Note to climate skeptics: This is the point where you stop reading and write a press release gleefully announcing that the earth is cooling and global warming is a hoax.) For those of you still reading, the same scientists predict that 2008 will still likely be one of the 10 hottest on record. Says researcher Phil Jones of the U.K. Met Office, “The fact that 2008 is forecast to be cooler than any of the last seven years does not mean that global warming has gone away.” Adds his colleague Chris Folland, “Sharply renewed warming is likely once La Niña declines.” Well damn.
