A Stable Climate

We often hear that we need to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to "stabilize" the earth's temperature. Take a look at these graphs of temperature and heat content:

These are the temperatures from the Hadley Climate Research Center since 1950. From about 1998, temperatures are stable although they are falling at the moment.

Now, here is ocean heat content (the more important metric of earth's temperature):

Courtesy Bob Tisdale and WattsUpWithThat

Six years of extremely stable heat content.

No one knows how these will change in the future. However, if the goal is to "stabilize" the climate, I think we can say it has been achieved.