Oy, here we go again. What is up, is down. What is left is right. What is right is wrong. And only the Eco-wackos are right.
All the snow we had this year (our local area broke the historical record for snow stretching back to 1873) is blamed on global warming (oy, again!).
Well, at least we’re fixing the Ozone hole, right? Banning all CFCs was the answer to all our UV radiation problems (remember all those dire predictions: we’d all have to be wearing goggles (even sheep) and swathed in sunscreen OVER all our clothes [ok, I’m making up the last part])
Er, not so fast – from Nature:
Antarctic ice threatened by ozone-hole recovery
Global winds could accelerate melting.
Recovery of the ozone hole above Antarctica could warm the Antarctic and cause more ice to melt in coming decades, researchers say. As the ozone hole heals, wind patterns that shield the interior of the polar region from warm air may break down, causing warming in the Antarctica as well as warmer and drier conditions in Australia.
So, time to ramp up yer underarm deoderant cans with the old style CFCs? Will it become cheaper and easier to keep our cars cool in the summer time?
Despite global temperatures rising, the interior of Antarctica has experienced a unique cooling trend during its summer and autumn over the last few decades. Scientists attribute this cooling to the hole in the ozone layer, which alters atmospheric circulation patterns and strengthens the westerly winds that swirl around the continent. These winds have isolated the Antarctic interior from the warming patterns seen on the continent’s peninsula and throughout the rest of the world.
“The warming of the Antarctic may have been delayed because of the ozone hole,” says atmospheric scientist Judith Perlwitz, a climate scientist at the of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
But thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol that banned the release of ozone-depleting substances, most scientists agree that the ozone hole has probably reached its largest and that ozone levels will recover by the end of the century.
Look, I’m not a denier – the earth has warmed. It will continue to warm…for a while…maybe. And then it will cool. It always does.
What this shows is that we really do not know all of the cycles and loops of the global weather system; we may not ever know. I just wish those that think they do will have a helping of humility and acknowledge that.
Or allow us to just accept the label "self-aggrandiser" .
