A couple of doomsayings – or what might be called some mischief making from environmentalists. Apparently, an ozone hole has developed this week over the Arctic and is said to be a big problem – blamed on unusually cold temperatures in the Arctic. Firstly, you may note the disappearance of ozone coincides with a couple of very big solar flares and auroral displays at the Poles but that is of no consequence, it seems (see http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/15/my-morning-double-take-arctic-on-t… ). Anthony Watts says that back in 2001 things were quite different. A paper in Science said NASA researchers using 22 years of satellite derived data confirmed a theory that the strength of long waves, bands of atmospheric energy that circle the earth, regulate the temperature in the upper atmosphere of the Arctic and control ozone losses in the stratosphere. The doomsayers, in contrast, say scientists see a connection between ozone loss and climate change, thereby ignoring research that has taken place since the great ozone hole scare of a couple of decades ago. However, the source of this story is surprising as it includes people from a variety of climate establishments across Europe and North America, with the German 'Alfred Wegener Institute' in Potsdam playing a leading role. Dated to March 14th, the doomsaying press release also blames CFCs, those fridge gases that were inconveniently banned some years ago. The nasty CFCs, we are told, are still up there playing havoc, in spite of the UN ban that has been in force – well, for a long time.
The first comment to follow the posting states, I was under the impression that CFCs had been absolved of ozone destroying blame and the ozone volume in the stratosphere was produced by solar radiation. As solar radiation has been low over the last couple of years this may explain why ozone levels have fallen – or has the science changed again? Another commenter adds that if cold weather is being blamed the ozone is probably not being destroyed but has sunk over the Poles with the cold air and is being carried on winds at a lower altitude towards the equatorial zone. The statement of the climate researchers in itself is revealing in that they say the ozone has been destroyed over the past few weeks. In other words, they assume it has been destroyed rather than it has moved elsewhere. Likewise, the link to global warming is itself dubious as a cold winter at the Poles is being blamed – but it is cold every winter at the North Pole, and dark. Actually, the ozone hole is not really a hole, but is thinning. It can be summed up sweetly by another commenter – if it keeps on getting warmer we are going to freeze to death, just like the ozone.
Meanwhile, there is mischief making afoot over Japan's plight. Environmentalists and AGW alarmists are using the doomsaying threat of a nucleur meltdown to put pressure on governments around the world not to build a new generation of nucleur power plants (see www.kusi.com/story/14250073/meltdown-blog/ This post puts the threat of meltdown into perspective but see also http://wattsupwiththat.com March 15th on a similar theme.