Atlantic Ocean Has Masked Global Warming This Century

A new study has been released saying that the Atlantic Ocean has masked global warming this century by soaking up large amounts of heat from the atmosphere in a shit likely to reverse from around 2030 and spur fast temperature increases.

The theory is just the latest explanation for a slowdown in the pace of warming at the Earth's surface since the mid-1990s.  The slowdown has puzzled experts mainly because it conflicts with rising greenhouse gas emissions, especially from emerging economies led by China.

"We're pointing to the Atlantic as the driver of the hiatus," Ka-Kit Tung, of the University of Washington in Seattle and a co-author of Thursday's study in the journal Science, told Reuters.

An Atlantic current, carrying water north from the tropics, sped up this century and sucked more warm surface waters down to 5,000 feet, according to the study. This is part of a natural shift for the ocean that can last up to three decades.

A return to a warmer period will likely start around 2030. When it does, "another episode of accelerated global warming should ensue", the authors said.

Around 200 governments are looking to agree on a deal to fight climate change at a summit in Paris sometime in late 2015. The hiatus has heartened sceptics who don't believe there is an urgent need for a trillion-dollar shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies, according to Reuters.

A number of studies in the past have suggested that the larger Pacific Ocean is the more likely site of the missing heat from man-made greenhouse gases, possibly linked to a series of La Nina cooling events in the ocean the past couple of years.

Another team of scientist writing in the journal Nature Geoscience this weekend said that factors, like swings in the sun's output and sun-blocking dust from volcanic eruptions, could account for the gaps in trying to understand warming trends.

"It will be interesting to see how and if these ideas are connected" with the theory of the Atlantic, lead author Markus Huber said of the study by the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich.

The more recent study said a shift in salinity could may have caused more heat to be transferred to the depths of the Atlantic.

Even though global warming has slowed,

Approximately 13 of the 14 warmest years on record have been this century even though global warming has slowed, according to U.N. estimates.