It could consistently get cooler over a 100 year period even in the middle of a period of global warming. Global warming periods last many millions of years. 100 years doesn't mean ****. 100 years is a miniscule amount of time, geologically speaking. To say that because it got cooler for a few years means the earth generally isn't generally getting warmer on a much larger scale is a very myopic way to view the issue.
It's like saying today is cooler than yesterday, therefore it's not possible that summer is approaching, we must be headed for winter. Or, "XJT stock has gone up two days in a row, why are all these idiots bitching about the stock price?"
The earth has been alternately warming and cooling since the beginning. There have been several Ice Ages, each followed by periods of global warming, to the point where the earth was probably completely ice-free even at the poles. We are at the very very beginning of one of those periods right now. Within these periods there are also smaller scale periods when the ice caps alternately advance and retreat. It has happened before, it is happening now, it will happen again after the next ice age in a few hundred million years.
The most significant question is not, "Is the earth getting warmer?" It is getting warmer, as we are just barely coming out from the last Ice Age.
The significant question is, "Are humans responsible for it?" The general consensus among geologists is that we are not responsible for it, but are probably helping it along a little quicker.
Either way, us humans are very insignificant. There is nothing we can do to stop processes that are hundreds of millions of years in the making. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try slowing it down a little bit to try and lengthen this very short period of time that the earth is comfortably inhabitable by humans.
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