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2008 Is the Coldest Year of the 21st Century

dtjohnson writes "Data from the United Kingdom Meteorological Office suggests that 2008 will be an unusually cold year due to the La Nina effect in the western Pacific ocean. Not to worry, though, as the La Nina effect has faded recently so its effect on next year's temperatures will be reduced. However, another natural cycle, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, is predicted to hold global temperatures steady for the next decade before global warming takes our planet into new warmth. If these predictions are correct, there must be a lot of planetary heat being stored away somewhere ... unless the heat output from the sun is decreasing rather than increasing or the heat being absorbed by the earth is decreasing due to changes in the earth's albedo."

44 of 1,039 comments (clear)

  1. gore by gearloos · · Score: 5, Funny

    But what will I do with all my "Gore 2012" buttons?

    --
    "Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
    1. Re:gore by corsec67 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Burn them for warmth.

      --
      If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
    2. Re:gore by actionbastard · · Score: 3, Funny

      Burn them to stay warm.

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      Sig this!
    3. Re:gore by strelitsa · · Score: 5, Funny

      Market them as sleds for gerbils.

      --
      No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
    4. Re:gore by actionbastard · · Score: 3, Funny

      How's that thing with Naraku working out?

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      Sig this!
    5. Re:gore by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 3, Funny

      The global warming platform from the Republican party is to shoot into the air and yell "yeeehaww!" a bunch.

      They must be taking their science advice from the same people who give them foreign policy advice.

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
    6. Re:gore by emjay88 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Less than temperate gerbils

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      1178161 is prime...
    7. Re:gore by krygny · · Score: 2, Funny

      Is that the science that predicts half of Manhattan underwater? ...

      It doesn't matter. The science is settled. The cutoff point for new knowledge has passed.

      --
      Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
    8. Re:gore by nEoN+nOoDlE · · Score: 3, Funny

      seeing as how you and corsec67 posted the same response at the same time, I for one welcome our comedic slashdot posting robotic overlords

      --
      Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
    9. Re:gore by dogmatixpsych · · Score: 3, Funny

      He does his part for global warming - every time he opens his mouth, he just produces more hot air. It's actually a scientifically proven fact that there was no global warming before Al Gore started talking so much about it. Or, maybe he's just trying to power a Gore-thermal power plant.

    10. Re:gore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      How do the instructions on THAT go??? "first you stick the pin up the gerbil's ass so they don't fall off"???

    11. Re:gore by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

      Still touting the insane idea that the media is not a right-wing mouthpiece? How cute.

      Yeah, I hate the way the media have manufactured this McCainmania, portraying him as almost the Messiah and so on whilst giving no coverage to Obama.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    12. Re:gore by imstanny · · Score: 2, Funny

      ah... in that case, bravo.

  2. Oh goody... by bigtallmofo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here comes a raging global warming debate... haven't seen this on the Internet in 5 seconds.

    Hopefully for this one we'll get some cashiers, makeup artists and puppeteers to weigh in with their expert environmental opinion, just to mix things up.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:Oh goody... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wow, believe it or not, most people aren't going to care about a theory that A) Doesn't affect them B) has many people that reject it C) Has no short or medium-term impact and D) has no effects right now.

      Awesome troll. But I think you're being too harsh on intelligent design, personally ...

    2. Re:Oh goody... by shellbeach · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm still busy with the emacs vs vi debate.

      But climate change and your choice of editor are intimately related. It's all the extra processor cycles needed to run emacs that's causing global warming ...

    3. Re:Oh goody... by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 5, Funny

      Global warming is a misnomer anyway - it should be called, "global climate instability."

      How about 'Intelligent Heating?'

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
    4. Re:Oh goody... by feepness · · Score: 2, Funny

      Here comes a raging global warming debate... haven't seen this on the Internet in 5 seconds.

      That's where the extra heat is! Internet hot air!

    5. Re:Oh goody... by blueg3 · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Is that the entire problem with the current "debate" on global warming?"

      No, the problem with the "debate" is the same as the problem with the evolution "debate" -- there are a lot of loud people who somehow became convinced that science is actually a giant conspiracy, that their half-assed nonquantitative arguments have equal footing with extensive research, and have no real intention of performing any critical thinking that might challenge their hastily-formed decision.

      The tiring thing about these worthless "global warming discussions" is that I've seen better scientific critical thinking out of first-year premed students (in undergrad). Nobody here is a competent scientist, much less a climatologist, but they sure are fucking egotistical enough to compensate for a room full of researchers.

    6. Re:Oh goody... by Isao · · Score: 2, Funny

      Global warming is a misnomer anyway - it should be called, "global climate instability."

      I thought The Earth was just thermally-challenged.

  3. Yarr! by shivamib · · Score: 4, Funny

    Score one fer bloody pirates, mate!

  4. The name game - one of my favorites... by bigtallmofo · · Score: 2, Funny

    How about "Simple Global Carbontosis?

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    I'm a big tall mofo.
  5. Mid life crisis by theskipper · · Score: 2, Funny

    due to changes in the earth's albedo.

    Guess Venus is starting to show her age.

    Uranus looks kinda cute though.

    1. Re:Mid life crisis by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 3, Funny

      Uranus is the one that is into that freaky European sex, right?

  6. What a relief by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Now every time a girl laughs I have facts to prove that it's normally a lot bigger.

  7. Climate Crisis of Faith by Shaitan+Apistos · · Score: 2, Funny

    The greatest trick global warming ever pulled was convincing the world it didn't exist.

  8. Re:Get the spelling right! by riceboy50 · · Score: 3, Funny

    You didn't hear that they renamed it in honor of Nina Reiser?

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    ~ I am logged on, therefore I am.
  9. Re:Get the spelling right! by pitchpipe · · Score: 2, Funny

    heat being absorbed by the earth is decreasing due to changes in the earth's albedo."

    Anyone else read this as libido?

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    Look where all this talking got us, baby.
  10. Re:Get the spelling right! by Bodhammer · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought it was the Areola Borealis?...

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    "I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
  11. Re:Global Warming by corbettw · · Score: 2, Funny

    When record breaking cold temperatures are touted as evidence of "global warming", what do you think?

    And I thought the flat earthers were persistent in their beliefs!

    --
    God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  12. Global warming or cooling? by ilovesymbian · · Score: 5, Funny

    This picture says it all - is it global warming or global cooling?

  13. Re:Silly to reject climate change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    If we are lucky, global warming and nuclear winter will cancel each other.

  14. Re:Stupid sunspots...( or lack thereof ) by ockegheim · · Score: 5, Funny

    First off, the new solar cycle is somewhat late

    OK, who knocked Sol up?

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    I’m old enough to remember 16K of memory being described as “whopping”
  15. Re:Stupid sunspots...( or lack thereof ) by pease1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So that's it... Sol is a girl! Must have been old Jove, the sly dog.

  16. Re:Coldest year my ass.... by SEWilco · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...tell that to my $300+ powerbill for AC.

    Quit paying the ACs, that only makes them post more.

  17. Re:Unbelievable by kd5zex · · Score: 1, Funny

    You forgot about the circle-jerk and bagel.

  18. Noooo!!! by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Doing stuff is overrated. Hitler did stuff! And look where that led! Wouldn't we all have been better off if he had just stayed home and gotten high?
     
    What were we talking about again?

  19. Re:Three Alaskian Volcanos by BitZtream · · Score: 3, Funny

    You are fired. You are not allowed to be part of the climate debate every again.

    Please do not come into our discussion with obvious reasons for short term events. We have spent many years working many late nights to come up with theories that aren't likely to be proven during our life time and are based on theoretical data. It took as many years of research to find data based on other theories and concepts that have yet to be proven.

    We do not welcome your kind in our group. We are respectable scientists with families and lives. Your ideas could seriously undermine our ability to obtain grant money for research in far away lands, and, as a direct result may also result in starving Ethiopians losing out on the slave wages we pay them to move all of our 'equipment' around for our research. Think of the sled dog teams that will no longer get a whole $10 bill for carrying us 200 miles north of any human with an ounce of self preservation in the northern hemisphere.

    Please, before making such statements again, consider how the children will be effected by your statements.

    Thank you

    --
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  20. Re:What nonsense by StrategicIrony · · Score: 2, Funny

    The flying spaghetti monster commands it.

    He talks to me... seriously.

    He told me to invade Tahiti... it's my duty.

    seriously.

  21. Re:Coldest year my ass.... by somersault · · Score: 3, Funny

    So you're saying that 'AC' button in my car doesn't activate an anonymity cloak for when I want to drive quickly through speed check areas or flip off cop cars? Uh oh.

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    which is totally what she said
  22. RTFA by Xabraxas · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did ANYONE actually read the article where the very next paragraph says:

    Even so, 2008 is set to be about the 10th warmest year since 1850, and Met Office scientists say temperatures will rise again as La Nina conditions ease

    Global Warming deniers think that any variation of temperature other than year after year increases in temperature is proof that Global Warming is a hoax. They fail to see the larger picture.

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    Time makes more converts than reason
  23. Re:Coldest year my ass.... by macdaddy · · Score: 3, Funny
    Definitely some strange things and ways of life up there in 'yankee land'.

    Yeah, who would have thought that it was possible to make it through childhood to being an adult and still have all their teeth!

    Just kidding.... :-)

  24. Re:Burn Gore's Nobel Prize to keep warm by SmurfButcher+Bob · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually, the "carbon credit" is soon to be renamed to an "indulgence".

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    help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am

  25. Re:Science changed from skepticism to consensus? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can you be so sure? I mean, even your post is clearly attributable to GW!

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.