GLOBAL WARMING CONSPIRACY!

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Two researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee say natural forces in the Earth's climate have conspired to end a recent period of global warming, and they predict that temperatures will change little or drop over the next decade or more.

The findings of mathematicians Kyle L. Swanson and Anastasios Tsonis contradict the assumptions of many climate scientists - including a leading figure who spoke in Milwaukee on Wednesday - who say the planet is currently warming.

Swanson and Tsonis believe that burning fossil fuels will lead to higher global temperatures over the century.

But their conclusion of lower temperatures in the near term has been used by anti-global warming forces to argue that the consensus on climate change isn't clear cut.

Did you catch that?

"[N]atural forces in the Earth's climate have conspired to end a recent period of global warming."

There are natural forces in the Earth's climate CONSPIRING to end a recent period of global warming?

It's a vast cooling conspiracy!

That is such an odd way to put it. Natural forces are conspiring. I wasn't aware that nature was capable of "conspiring" to do anything regarding the climate.

...Tsonis and Swanson used mathematical analysis to look at the role of the Earth's natural climate cycles and the long-term weather patterns that drive them.

...Tsonis and Swanson found that the Earth is in the beginning of a long-term climate cycle where temperatures will level off or drop over the next few decades.

The reason for the change is that, inevitably, climatic forces begin to work so closely together that a slight change creates instability and throws the climate into a new state.

They used cyclists riding in a group time-trial as an example: Their motion is synchronized and carefully planned to maximize the team's overall speed. But if they were tied together with a rope, the slightest misstep would cause a crash.

After a period of warming in the 1980s and 1990s, "we speculated that the temperature will be decreasing for a couple of decades," Tsonis said.

Still, all of this will be superimposed over a long-term trend of warming caused by greenhouse gases.

"There is going to be a shift upward," Tsonis said. "And together with the effects of greenhouse gases, it will make it really hot."

So according to Tsonis and Swanson, we can expect "temperatures will level off or drop over the next few decades."

But they see a long-term trend of warming.

In the short-term, meaning a couple of decades, temperatures will become cooler. Don't get used to it. The more distant future will be "really hot" according to Tsonis.

What we have here is just a "conspiracy" of natural forces.

Isn't science fascinating?