Data pins polar warming blame on humans - CNN.com
The report may go some way towards silencing climate skeptics who point to evidence that most of Antarctica has been cooling for some time.
"There is strong warming in the Antarctic peninsula," Karpechko said. "But for several decades there has been a slight cooling of the rest of the continent. This slight cooling is due to circulation changes which are partly caused by ozone depletion.
"This is why there has been a bit of confusion as to what is happening in Antarctica. But we expect a recovery of the ozone layer in the future. We may also expect that the Antarctic warming trends will emerge more clearly."
Commenting on the study conducted by the UEA, Professor David Vaughan, a Glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey told CNN: "This is exactly the sort of study we need. The poles are extremely important in the climate change debate and the rapid warming in the Arctic is one of the icons."
Professor Vaughan, who is studying the patches of warming happening in Antarctica, concedes that the cooling that's occurred in the past 30 to 50 years is "a little perplexing". But he agrees with Dr Karpechko over the effects of the ozone hole.
"The likelihood is that over the next century the ozone hole will be substantially reduced," Professor Vaughan said, "And it may mean that the Antarctic warming becomes much more apparent in that period."
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4 comments:
Interesting. The Ozone Hole causes cooling in all of Antarctica EXCEPT the Peninsula, which, by the way, also normally is included in the Hole: http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/monthly/index.html
It's fascinating to read "scientist" Vaughans comment: "This is exactly the sort of study we need." Say no more.
Cool air causes the ozone hole to increase. They have it backwards.
Equivocation can be amusing. it is so easy to say "A causes B". But when equivocators try to say "A causes the opposite of B" in the same breath. it gets hilarious.
A year ago, I was hearing how the Montreal Protocol was a great example of how a global treaty had wrestled a man-made global environmental problem "to the ground".
Now, we hear that the Ozone Hole [Shriek, Panic, Run] is the biggest ever, all due to global warming.
[/irony]
RW of Ottawa
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