Some scientists have discovered that global warming has decided to take a holiday because all of the carbon dioxide humans are shooting into the atmosphere isn't enough to overcome natural fluctuations.

Researchers studying long-term changes in sea temperatures said they now expect a "lull" for up to a decade while natural variations in climate cancel out the increases caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Global warming may stop, scientists predict The study predicts the IPCC's 0.3ºC temperature rise for the next decade may not happen
Melting icebergs: The study predicts the IPCC's 0.3ºC temperature rise for the next decade may not happen

The average temperature of the sea around Europe and North America is expected to cool slightly over the decade while the tropical Pacific remains unchanged.

This would mean that the 0.3°C global average temperature rise which has been predicted for the next decade by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may not happen, according to the paper published in the scientific journal Nature.

However, the effect of rising fossil fuel emissions will mean that warming will accelerate again after 2015 when natural trends in the oceans veer back towards warming, according to the computer model.

Noel Keenlyside of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, Kiel, Germany, said: "The IPCC would predict a 0.3°C warming over the next decade. Our prediction is that there will be no warming until 2015 but it will pick up after that."

So, when the Earth cools despite all of the CO2 we're shooting into the atmosphere it's "natural variation," but when it warms, we're to blame and not "natural variation."

I'm sure there's a technical term for this sort of conundrum. Ah, yes, it's called a scam.