Expert: Global warming to gradually cool off after 2022
© RIA Novosti. Valeriy Melnikov

Expert: Global warming to gradually cool off after 2022

Global warming will continue but will not cause large-scale glacier melting: After 2022, warming may give way to a period of gradual cooling off, said Nikolai Zavalishin, Head of the Hydrometeorology and Ecology Department at the Siberian Regional Research Institute of Meteorology.

 "In my estimate, the warming process will continue until 2022, with temperatures rising by about 1.1 degrees. This will be followed by a gradual decline, regardless of how much hydrocarbon is burned up by humankind," TASS quotes Zavalishin as saying.

According to TASS, Zavalishin supports the theory that global warming is caused by natural, rather than anthropogenic, factors. He links rising temperatures with the Earth's reduced albedo, or reflective power. He has noted recurrent warming and cooling periods in history, with each cycle consisting of a ten-year rapid warming period and 40-50 years of increasingly cooler weather.

In 2015-2016, Russia posted the warmest weather in many years of meteorological observations, he noted. The Arctic ice is melting quickly, with the area of sea ice formations hitting an all-time low in the summer of 2016.