Ozone Hole Healing Could Cause Further Climate Warming

[WriteDown]

Source: Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2010) — The hole in the ozone layer is now steadily closing, but its repair could actually increase warming in the southern hemisphere, according to scientists at the University of Leeds.

The Antarctic ozone hole was once regarded as one of the biggest environmental threats, but the discovery of a previously undiscovered feedback shows that it has instead helped to shield this region from carbon-induced warming over the past two decades.

High-speed winds in the area beneath the hole have led to the formation of brighter summertime clouds, which reflect more of the sun's powerful rays.

"These clouds have acted like a mirror to the sun's rays, reflecting the sun's heat away from the surface to the extent that warming from rising carbon emissions has effectively been cancelled out in this region during the summertime," said Professor Ken Carslaw of the University of Leeds who co-authored the research.

"If, as seems likely, these winds die down, rising CO2 emissions could then cause the warming of the southern hemisphere to accelerate, which would have an impact on future climate predictions," he added.....

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100125192016.htm

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Damned if you do....

[Arctic Dave]

1. Don't worry, BP will dump a shit load of Halon and make it bigger.

[WriteDown]

3. We're saved! nt

[Arctic Dave]

4. It's their way of doing pollution offsets with more pollution.

Kinda like smoking to keep from dying from nicotine poisoning.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Screw around with a complex system and you can not predict when hell breaks lose.

There may be no cure for our disease, only a new and more precarious balance.

[Skink]

5. The NYT reported on this today.

Seems like a sucess story. Now let's keep doing reponsible things like cutting greenhouse gases.

[imnKOgnito]

6. And an important comparison to point out to deniers...

Seems one of the favorite arguments I hear is that lil ol' us aren't big enough to be able to affect something on as grand of a scale as the global climate. I just ask them if they've ever heard of the ozone hole, which we definitely caused and are on our way to fixing by addressing and elimintating the causes.

[winyanstaz]

7. Better get our butts busy and plant lots of trees.....

Hemp too (it is a very fast recyler of carbon dioxide into oxygen) and a fast ground cooling cover. :) Not only that...it will create jobs, feed people and animals and make a bio-degradable paint thinner..fuels along with edible oils.) Along with all the organic food plants we can get into the ground.

[FreakinDJ]

8. There are just Too Many People on this planet

until you address that this is all moot

[winyanstaz]

10. The answer to that is also easy...

Let women control their own bodies.
Having had babies I can tell you...most women would not lightly chose to have more than one or two babies at the most.
Of course we have crazy women that want to have a lot..but I believe most would rather not..especially those that cant feed the ones they aready have.

[Socal31]

12. I can only think of a few ways to address that.....

Plague? Another Great War? Chinese policies?

Not sure what you are getting at.

[FailureToCommunicate]

9. "It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature"

[Earth_First]

11. Everyone knows that this is like leaving a window open...

How can the planet get warmer when the heat is escaping out the "open window"!!1!11