Are people becoming more sceptic towards global warming if they face a cold winter?

I believe, the answer is in your question...

Ordinary people look at variation of the weather compared to the average for the season or the "average minimum/maximum" This variation can well exceed 10 or 15°C. Compared to that, the 0.02°C increase per year is unnoticeable. This means that it is around 0.1 to 0.15% of what their perception of what a major change is.

It is basically a Gauss distribution curve with an increasing average... but with a very large basis from the top 1 to 99 percentile (the 50% percentile being the average).

Since the observed global warming is a 100+ year trend,

would one cold January in one area disprove it? Of course not.

A cool winter was expected this year in the Northern Hemisphere due to the strong La Nina cooling influence, just as the hot 1998 was expected from the strong El Nino warming influence.

Here's an excerpt from NASA Director Dr. James Hansen's response:

"The large short-term temperature fluctuations have no bearing on the global warming matter or the impacts of global warming..."

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20080303_Co...

Dr. James Hansen also comments on the unexpected heat of 2007:

"The Southern Oscillation and the solar cycle have significant effects on year-to-year global temperature change. Because both of these natural effects were in their cool phases in 2007, the unusual warmth of 2007 is all the more notable. It is apparent that there is no letup in the steep global warming trend of the past 30 years (see 5-year mean curve in Figure 1a). 'Global warming stopped in 1998' has become a recent mantra of those who wish to deny the reality of human-caused global warming. The continued rapid increase of the five-year running mean temperature exposes this assertion as nonsense."

"The eight warmest years in the GISS record have all occurred since 1998, and the 14 warmest years in the record have all occurred since 1990."

It's funny how the denialists won't believe 1200 months of data showing warming, but they're quick to make a lot of noise about a few cold months, no matter how expected that cooling might be (La Nina).

shapeshifter -

This chart was at the link you provided:

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/glo...

It shows the net global ice anomaly (growth vs. melting) at pretty close to zero now, not the +3 million miles you claim. That page also mentions that the ice forming in the Arctic is a thin single winter thickness, replacing the much thicker multi-year ice that melted last Summer. Since the charts only show surface area, not volume, they hide the loss of thickness and mass.

Look it's nothing against you guys personally but this is going beyond the point of ridiculous. We know that winters happen, I'd say for atleast the last 40 years I've understood that in the winter it's going to get cold, which is why we like to point this fact out since you guys can't seem to recall that droughts, floods, hurricanes and the like are also part of the earths normal weather patterns. Dawie It's like saying "I have a penny more in my wallet today than I did on December 26, 2007. Therefore, my wealth is going to increase exponentially in the next 100 years.." It's like saying Venus has run away global warming and the same is destined for the earth if we continue driving cars. It's like saying the IPCC said snow is in our future, it's snowing, proof of global warming. It's like saying a city that's below sea level, flooded by a hurricane, during hurricane season, is a result of our poor stewardship of the earth. It's like saying a country ill prepared for heavy snow isn't going to recieve snow in the future and when it does snow saying see I told you it was going to catch us off guard, global warming theory, done.

According to the IPCC, if the co2 level rises, the temp should rise with it. How can prolonged below average weather happen on such a large scale if this is true? If it were accurate, we would have an above average winter, not a below average winter. I know you are experiencing a warm winter over in europe, but im convinced the north atlantic current is to blame for that.

Currently, sea ice in the northern hemisphere is still increasing! Usually by this time the thaw has begun. In the southern hemisphere, the sea ice has already started increasing. At this time last year, this was not happening.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/index.nosh...

People always mention " there is a negative anomoly of sea ice at the northern hemisphere". They never mention there is, and has been for some time, a positive anomoly of sea ice at the south pole. The anomolies are almost equal, except the anomoly at the south pole is GREATER than the anomoly at the north pole, meaning there is a global NET anomoly of +.3-.6 million sq miles.

Global warming doesn't mean that every place on earth is going to burn to a crisp. Some places like No. Europe will actually get colder. And yes, you are correct, the abount of increase in the global temperature fluctuates, and is very small over a long period of time. Nothing on the planet happens overnight.

I do believe Global Warming is true. More and more start to believe it is true, because they can see with their own eyes. Today, people are intelligent, we don't believe everything we hear from others. We're starting to learn how to see things and not influence by other people easily. Sooner or later everyone are going to believe Global Warming is true. No matter how hard we try right now, like recycling, or carpool. There is some help, but it will NOT completely stop Global Warming. Decades ago, scientists already warned Humans, but nobody listened. Now, we have to pay for what we did.

No, that would be rather silly to think that each and every day, month, year must be warmer than the previous one. There are other influences on climate other the greenhouse gases. The article, "Doubts about the Advent of Spring" illustrates just how silly such a belief is.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoiOR...

The real reason why the deniers become stauncher in their beliefs despite mounting evidence (and no winter and a La Nina do not prove that global warming is a “fraud”) is neocons party discipline. (I’d bet that these very same guys also believe that the war in Iraq is going great, despite the fact that ethnic cleansing was completed under our watch, one full year after the surge Iraqi leaders are still no closer to a political settlement, and the is still no exit plan in sight.)

"The more I've listened to global warming deniers, the more I've realized that for most of them, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE SCIENCE. These guys don't go five minutes without attacking Al Gore or comparing climate activists to socialists who want to destroy capitalism. Deniers are part of a political culture that frames the world in terms of left and right, so they've absorbed global warming into that broader paradigm of partisan politics."[1]

See fellow answerer gcnp58 response here to a similar question: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnAdN...

It seems a lot of people would do that but the would be incorrect in doing so because global warming refers to climate which is a long period of time.

it is a fact! look at the glaciers in Greenland they are vanishing! i know a doctor who visits there and Antarctica every year,he comes back very sad. the pictures in gores movie don't lie! he has first hand photos of his own, the doc i mean, and over the past 30yrs he's been going to these places the pic's of the same things are unbelievable too see! there may be climate cycles and odd weather , but mountains of melted glaciers do not lie!!! especially when 30 years worth are in your face! i have viewed them several times. WE ALL MUST ACT!!! BIG-G,,,

Global warming is not a fraud. Everyone else in the world believes in global warming other than the USA, every other country is trying to convince our president to help stop global warming, but he it too concerned about more important things (sarcasm) like the war, money, oil, having another republican elected....

Lily