For me, the jury is still out on the manmade global warming theory. I don't doubt that we should not be polluting the way we have, but, scientifically, you can only assess the effects when looking at the appropriate scale, and when ice ages existed for thousands of years, the past 100 years of western industrialization isn't even a blip on the radar when we look at the age and history of our planet.

Now, I heard an interesting and perhaps plausible theory about why it's been so cold. Too simplify it, the polar ice caps trap the cold there. With their reduction, the cold is able to expand out. In fact, this is also a possible explanation for the crazy winter the UK had back in 2010-11 when they got really dumped on with snow. When you look at the sea currents and air flow over northern Europe and Scandinavia, there are some arctic regions that no longer exist and let the cold flow down in the direction of the UK. I just don't know if the earth is flexing its muscles, man is crapping things up, or it's some lovely combo of the two.