According to this Scientific American article, the Atmospheric CO2 trend-line is still heading 'skyward'-- while the "Global-mean temperature" line has sort of leveled out (when compared to the upwards trends of prior decades).
Which raises the question: Where is all that extra heat going?
Well recent studies think they have discovered where ...
Is the Pacific Ocean Responsible for a Pause in Global Warming?
by David Biello, ScientificAmerican.com -- Aug 28, 2013
[...] the tropical Pacific Ocean, which is responsible for the weather patterns known as El Niño and La Niña that can swing global average temperatures by as much as 0.3 degree Celsius, was anomalously cold. [...] a new study suggests that the phenomenon may explain the recent "pause" in global warming of average temperatures.
[...]
Other factors -- volcanoes, an unusually weak solar cycle, air pollution from China -- probably play an important role in restraining global warming as well. Some of the observed climate effects may also stem from other ocean dynamics such as variations in the mixing of surface and deep ocean waters. Already, it appears that ocean waters down to 2,000 meters in depth have trapped a disproportionate share of heat, warming by roughly 0.1 degree C (the equivalent of roughly 36 degrees C of atmospheric warming) since 1955. And the meltdown of significant ice from Greenland or Antarctica might even cool oceans enough to offset the extra heat trapped by rising levels of greenhouse gases for a time. "We need updates to the forcings and a proper exploration of all the different mechanisms together," says climate modeler Gavin Schmidt of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. [...]
Despite any pause in the trend toward hotter temperatures, the first decade of the 21st century was the hottest based on records kept since the 1880s -- and it included record heat waves in Russia and the U.S. as well as a precipitous meltdown of Arctic sea ice and surging sea level rise. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 touched 400 parts per million on Mauna Loa in May, a first in the time line of human existence. A cooler Pacific stuck in a La Niña rut may have restrained global warming for the past decade or so, Xie notes, but it is unlikely to last. "This effect of natural variability will be averaged out over a period of 100 years," he says, "and cannot argue away the threat of persistent anthropogenic warming that is occurring now."
Now if we can only count on La Niña rut staying in its cool-pool rut for the next 100 years?
But those Scientists don't seem to be under any delusions of a permanent La Niña will actually 'cancel out' our global warming problem in the long run. Even if we may now be on a short reprieve.
Given the superior Heat Capacity of water, it only makes sense that the world's water would soak up and store that excess heat (that that CO2 blanket is trapping). Water holds heat content, much more effectively than mere air, comparatively speaking.
Pacific Ocean warming 15 times faster than before
by Doyle Rice, USA TODAY -- October 31, 2013
[...]
"Increases in ocean heat content and temperature are robust indicators of global warming during the past several decades," according to today's Science study.
"We're pumping heat into the ocean at a faster rate over the past 60 years," said study lead author Yair Rosenthal, a climate scientist at Rutgers University. "We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy," he added. "It may buy us some time -- how much time, I don't really know. But it's not going to stop climate change."
"It's not so much the magnitude of the change, but the rate of change," noted study co-author Braddock Linsley, a Columbia University climate scientist. "We're experimenting by putting all this heat in the ocean without quite knowing how it's going to come back out and affect climate."
[...]
So the warming oceans may have bought us time, to tap-down those CO2 growth rates. But for a variety of reasons, warming the oceans beyond our historical norms,
may also "buy us" some planetary trade-offs -- that are more trouble that their worth ... in the long run.
Effects of global warming on oceans
Wikipedia
Global warming can affect sea levels, coastlines, ocean acidification, ocean currents, seawater, sea surface temperatures,[1] tides, the sea floor, weather, and trigger several changes in ocean bio-geochemistry; all of these affect the functioning of a society.[2]
wikipedia.org -- WhereIsTheHeatOfGlobalWarming
[...]
The connection between sea level rise and ocean thermal expansion follows from Charles's law (also known as the law of volumes) put simply states that the volume of a given mass is proportional to its temperature. This contribution to sea level is monitored by oceanographers using a succession of temperature measuring profiling instruments, which is then compiled at national data centers such as the United States National Oceanographic Data Center. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report estimates that the upper ocean (surface to 750 m deep) has warmed by 0.09 to 0.13 degrees C per decade over the past 40 years.[7] [...]
Ocean currents
[...]
It is important to note that ocean currents provide the necessary nutrients for life to sustain itself in the lower latitudes.[25] Should the currents slow down, fewer nutrients would be brought to sustain ocean life resulting in a crumbling of the food chain and irreparable damage to the marine ecosystem. Slower currents would also mean less carbon fixation. Naturally, the ocean is the largest sink within which carbon is stored. When waters become saturated with carbon, excess carbon has nowhere to go, because the currents are not bringing up enough fresh water to fix the excess. This causes a rise in atmospheric carbon which in turn causes positive feedback that can lead to a runaway greenhouse effect.[26]
It's those "positive feedback" loops that will get you every time.
Must be why it's SO important to keep those intricate Cycles of Nature -- in balance.
Our current Ocean Heat Sink phenomena may be "buying us time" to do something constructive about Climate Change; but it also brings with it, a worldful of hurt if we dare to assume that warm, warm Oceans will ultimately be trouble-free.