2008: Coolest year of this century

The year 2008 is officially the coolest year of this century – but U.N. climate change alarmists are sticking by their arguments for global warming.

World temperatures have dropped to levels not seen since 2000, the World Meteorological Organization, or WMO, reports.

However, the WMO, has been vigilant in informing global warming skeptics that temperatures still remain about 0.3 degrees Celsius above 1961-1990 averages.

WMO scientists say the trend is due to La Nina cooling the globe and reducing water temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean. They predict temperatures will increase again one year after La Nina's cooling trend.

The U.N. weather agency also claims ice volume in the Arctic region has plunged to the lowest ever recorded.

"What is happening in the Arctic is one of the key indicators of global warming," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said. "The overall trend is still upwards."

While the WMO report shows 2008 has the second lowest levels since 1979, the agency stands by its claims that ice volume is the lowest on record.

According to a Reuters report, the WMO said, "because ice was thinner in 2008, overall ice volume was less than in any other year. The season strongly reinforced the 30-year downward trend in the extent of Arctic Sea ice."

Scientists warn that since 1993, summer Arctic sea ice has lost an area equivalent to the sive of Alaska, California and Texas.

Peter Stott, a climate scientist at Britain's Hadley Center, which provided data for the WMO report, told Reuters people should not assume the Earth is not warming simply because 2008 is the coolest year in several years.

"This decade is almost 0.2 degrees (Celsius) warmer compared to the previous decade," he said. "We have to look at it in that way, comparing decades not years."

This week, former Vice President Al Gore urged for immediate action to halt global warming, calling it a "five-alarm fire that has to be addressed immediately."

"We need to start in January making significant changes," he told the Associated Press. "This year coming up is the most important opportunity the world has ever had to make progress in really solving the climate crisis."

Stanford University biologist Terry Root put out his own urgent message.

"We're running out of time," he warned. "Things are going extinct."