Earth's climate continues to confound scientists. Following a 30-year trend of warming, global temperatures have flatlined since 2001 despite rising greenhouse gas concentrations, and a heat surplus that should have cranked up the planetary thermostat.

This is nothing like anything we've seen since 1950, Kyle Swanson of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said. Cooling events since then had firm causes, like eruptions or large-magnitude La Ninas. This current cooling doesn't have one.

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Swanson thinks the trend could continue for up to 30 years. But he warned that it's just a hiccup, and that humans' penchant for spewing greenhouse gases will certainly come back to haunt us.