There were Green inspired planetary scares long before the CAGW meme kicked in, fanned by doomsayers that appear to have taken on the mantle formerly held by the fire and brimstone people. One of these was ozone depletion. Some years ago it was discovered ozone was dispersed by the solar wind and there was not really an ozone hole but a redistribution of the gas away from the poles – which is where the solar wind impacts. This has never stopped the doomsayers repeating the claim that it was humans with their CFC gases, as used in fridges and aerosols for example, that were responsible for what they claimed was an environmental catastrophe. Conniving with politicians only too willing to play to the gallery, and the greens had the gallery enthralled, the UN banned them. People were paid out of our taxes to destroy CFCs wherever they might be, and millions of fridges became obsolete overnight. In China, enterprising people set up factories especially to produce CFCs – only to destroy them and gain the subsidy on offer from the developed world. Now, it seems, climate scientists might be catching up with reality. At http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/susan-solomon-et-al-decreases-… … where it is claimed ultra violet light from the Sun destroys ozone. This was at a peak towards the end of the 20th century – hence the ozone hole.
This is interesting from another angle too as it may indicate major solar flares in the past coincided with ozone depletion – hence the severity of the solar radiation at such times (thinking in terms of the 775AD event).