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Pause for thought

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 154–156 (2014)Cite this article

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The recent slowdown (or 'pause') in global surface temperature rise is a hot topic for climate scientists and the wider public. We discuss how climate scientists have tried to communicate the pause and suggest that 'many-to-many' communication offers a key opportunity to directly engage with the public.

Since the late 1990s, global mean surface temperature increased more slowly than during the preceding two decades. The reasons for this 'pause' are being actively debated by the climate science community1,2,3,4. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (AR5) concluded in their Summary for Policymakers (SPM) that this slowdown “is due in roughly equal measure to a reduced trend in radiative forcing and a cooling contribution from natural internal variability”1.

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Figure 1: The role of variability in global temperatures.
Figure 2: Global internet search trends.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all those who have contributed to the many fascinating discussions that have helped form our thoughts on communicating complex climate issues on blogs and twitter. We also acknowledge useful suggestions from several other climate scientists that helped improve this Commentary. This Commentary represents the personal opinions of the authors.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology, Ed Hawkins is at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6BB, UK, (twitter: @ed_hawkins)

    Ed Hawkins

  2. Tamsin Edwards is at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK, (twitter: @flimsin)

    Tamsin Edwards

  3. Doug McNeall is at the Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter EX1 3PB, UK, (twitter: @dougmcneall)

    Doug McNeall

Authors
  1. Ed Hawkins
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  2. Tamsin Edwards
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  3. Doug McNeall
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ed Hawkins.

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Hawkins, E., Edwards, T. & McNeall, D. Pause for thought. Nature Clim Change 4, 154–156 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2150

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