GLOBAL_WARMING_CLIMATE_CHANGE_JULY_2013.JPG

The reports that there is a "pause" in global warming has some people wondering if man-made emissions really have an impact on the environment.

(Martin Meissner, AP file photo)

When it comes to climate change, it seems the world has been put on hold.

Researchers in Great Britain report there currently is a "pause" in the gradual increase of worldwide temperatures. Actually, the earth has been on pause for the past 15 years, and surface temperatures on the earth have not increased on average since the late 1990s, officials with the U.K's meteorological office report.

So what's going on? Are we out of the woods? Are the dire predictions of the effects of climate change now moot? Not exactly. But then, no one is really sure what's causing the pause, according to the BBC:

The consensus seems to be a slow warming of the deep oceans, the Guardian reports:

The news of a "pause" has been embraced by skeptics of global warming. Rupert Darwall, the author of "The Age of Global Warming," says the recent developments illustrate the difficulty scientists have in proving that climate change is actually occurring:

The Independent in Great Britain reports that one problem scientists have is explaining why the rate of increase in global temperatures has declined in recent years while concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have continued to accelerate. Nirav Kothari, writing on the website mydigitalfc.com, says scientists have been exaggerating the effects carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its effects on the climate:

The news of a pause in rising temperatures comes at an interesting time for Great Britain, which just experienced a significant heat wave that was blamed for hundreds of deaths. Much of the United States, including Northeast Ohio, also just suffered through a heat wave, and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association reported that June was the fifth-warmest globally on record. (NOAA scientists say it's too early to tell if the recent heat waves are related to climate change.)

James Temple, in an column on the website for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, says climate-change skeptics are fooling themselves if they don't believe the earth is still warming: