There are two great natural ocean currents origination in the Pacific that greatly effect world climate and temperatures. The first, El Nino (The Child in Spanish, as it arrives around Christmas) is a warm current. El Nino will bring warmer temperatures in it's wake. The last El Nino effect in world climate was in 1998. This year the other current, La Nina (the feminine version in Spanish) will bring cooler temperatures to the planet, as much as one-half of one degree cooler, on average. This doesn't sound like much, but it will bring heavier than normal snowfall in Chile, and torrential rains in previously drought-stricken Australia.
Scientists consider both currents, El Nino and La Nina, periodic variable effects in global temperatures and climate. But since global temperatures have not risen appreciably since 1998, the current cooling effects of La Nina prompt some to question the entire theory of global warming. But the majority of the scientific community stress that global climate change is a given, and that the trend is temperatures overall is up. Climate experts say that the warming trend will resume within five years, probably reaching record high temperatures.
An intriguing theory about the current global cooling relates to sunspots, a result of low levels of magnetism on the sun. This condition is historically periodic, and called the Maunder Minimum. The earth last experienced this condition in the 17th century, a period of a prolonged cooling trend. This so-called solar hibernation initiated a little ice age, a colder period with intermittent warming, that lasted until 1715.
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