Greatest Planet's Climate Change and Global Warming blog facilitates lively and informative discussion on the science and wider implications of global warming. The blog aims to be an informal forum for debate and commentary on climate science in our journals and others, in the news, and in the world at large. http://www.greatestplanet.org/index.html The Onion last week had a great (recycled) spoof on the various 'green' special issues being published but, not to be outdone, the contributors to Greatest Planet have also been busy producing paper products about the environment. http://www.greatestplanet.org/blog-july-2008-all-paper-salutes-to-the-environment.html The title here should strike a familiar theme for most readers. Climate forcings do not just include CO2 (other greenhouse gases, aerosols, land use, the sun, the orbit and volcanoes all contribute), and the impact of human emissions often has non-climatic effects on biology and ecosystems. http://www.greatestplanet.org/blog-july-2008-CO2-is-not-the-only-greenhouse-gas.html It's long been known that El Niņo variability affects the global mean temperature anomalies. 1998 was so warm in part because of the big El Niņo event over the winter of 1997-1998 which directly warmed a large part of the Pacific, and indirectly warmed (via the large increase in water vapour) an even larger region. The opposite effect was seen with the La Niņa event this last winter. Since the variability associated with these events is large compared to expected global warming trends over a short number of years, the underlying trends might be more clearly seen if the El Niņo events (more generally, the El Niņo - Southern Oscillation (ENSO)) were taken out of the way. There is no perfect way to do this - but there are a couple of reasonable approaches. http://www.greatestplanet.org/blog-july-2008-global-trends-and-ENSO.html