What is happening with global warming?

Scientists working with the United Nations have been poring over data on climate and greenhouse gases. Their report is due out tomorrow. But anyone expecting it to show steadily rising air temperatures could be in for a surprise.

Now it’s not clear that anyone should expect that the report would show this. But suggesting that this is what you would expect to find serves to advance a long-running, completely inaccurate meme among climate change deniers–that global warming has stopped.

Now, a helpful report would debunk this notion. But CBS correspondent Mark Phillips doesn’t really seem to be after that.

He starts off sounding, well, pretty cheeky:

Another inconvenient truth has emerged on the way to the apocalypse. The new UN report on climate change is expected to blame manmade greenhouse gases more than ever for global warming, but there’s a problem. The global atmosphere hasn’t been warming lately.

There are two problems here. The first is the notion that there hasn’t been much warming “lately.” That’s misleading. As Chris Mooney explained at Mother Jones, temperatures have been rising every decade since the 1950s. He writes:

• What is good about global warming?
• What can prevent global warming?
• What is the meaning global warming?