On 13th Feb the Today programme broadcast a package about whether the UK storms and floods have any link to climate change. The discussants were Brian Hoskins (of a Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change), and Nigel Lawson, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and founding chairman of the a biocidal pseudo think-tank. Chaired by Justin Webb. Lawson claimed that the Earth has not warmed in the last decade or so. Hoskins agrees that the surface temperature has not increased, but said the energy is in the oceans. Lawson responds that this is “pure speculation”. Fortunately, Webb is then able to break the impasse in the debate and move the journalistic agenda on. I made this audio clip in his honour.
I would have guessed that one reason the surface of the earth is currently not warming is because all the ice is melting. As pointed out elsewhere, your cold drink does not start warming up until after the ice cubes have melted.
Cf.
http://www.thegwpf.org/bbc-radio-4-lawson-hoskins-flooding-climate-change/
