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Chicken Little?

The way I have been hearing it, the ozone depletion that mainly occurred from the 1970's to the 1990's was a cause of global warming. Depletion of ozone allows more solar radiation (specifically UV of wavelengths in the UVB range and maybe the shortest wavelengths of the UVA range) to reach Earth's surface.

Although Philadelphia had what I think (not sure) is its second-warmest January day since 1874-1875 last Saturday and may in a week set a record long stretch of days with "above-normal" temperature, SE Colorado and some nearby parts of Kansas and New Mexico probably want to beg to differ. So would have Buffalo sometime last October.

Meanwhile, I just heard a news blurb that 2006 was the hottest year for the 48 "contiguous US states". (I suspect the "overheating" occurred more east of the Rockies than in and west of the Rockies.)

Although I am bracing myself for this winter to continue to do to the Philadelphia area in Philadelphia what occurred in the 3 most similar past winters (as I see it) in my memory: 1982-1983, 1996-1997, and 2001-2002. Well, the 1996-1997 one was a non-problem one for Philly and everyone nearby, although there was a humdinger of an ice storm in early January in a good part of NY state, a good part of New England, and SE Ontario and SW Quebec (including Ottawa and Montreal IIRC). 1983 has Philly's "Blizzard of 1983" (#2 snowstorm since 1874) and 2002 has what I think is Philly's #5 snowstorm since 1874. (#1 was the early January "Blizzard of 1996", #3 was a December 21-22 one in 1909, and #4 was an early April one in 1915.) I think early spring was on the chilly and wet side in 2002, and I know for sure it was in 1983.

As for nothing can be done about it in the likely event this is for real? Certainly I think the extent of worse warming in the next 50-200 years can be mitigated by effective actions taken now and soon.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein
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In , Joerg wrote in part:

See what happens this winter! So far the weather pattern has been making the West cold and the East warm! It appears to me that this may shift soon!

Also, I see global warming coming late to Pacific coastal USA areas, since the water mass of the Pacific Ocean has a thermal time constant (in response to Earth's atmosphere or sun output changing the balance between income and outgo in thermal radiation) in the 1-1.5 century ballpark.

Currently there is an El Nino, and those traditionally foment a "southern USA storm track" (often but not always nurning northward at the East Coast or sometimes in the Appalachians). "Southern Tier States" on the El-Nino-related storm track tend to be a bit cooler than their "normal" during an El Nino. Meanwhile, outside that "South/East" storm track, El Nino tends to warm the USA. And on average, mid-Atlantic to coastal New England tends to be warmed by El Nino in the first half of winter even if the storms make things chillier in the second half.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 22:22:27 -0500, Sean wrote in Msg.

The North-West passage has been thawing continuously over the years and will soon be open for commercial freight shipping.

robert

Reply to
Robert Latest

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:06:22 +0000 (UTC), Don Klipstein wrote in Msg.

No. The UV portion of the sun's radiaton does not significantly contribute to global warming. It does contribute to skin cancer though.

robert

Reply to
Robert Latest

And the whole "ozone depletion" craze is a crock of shit.

Didn't anybody learn in school that UV dissociates O2 molecules, which then oxidizes other O2 into O3, which eventually breaks down spontaneously anyway? It's the _OXYGEN_ that filters the UV - ozone is a side effect.

There's an ozone hole over the antarctic because there's no sunlight there, notwithstanding the auroras, which also break down ozone. Nobody spotted the "hole" before because nobody had ever looked for one.

Thanks, Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

And at ground level ozone is a known health hazard.

Reply to
ian field

So is Rich.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

How's that, Michael? All that hatred burning you up inside?

Sorry. Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise, Plainclothes Hippi

Most sources say the sun's surface is 5800 elvin, a few say 5700. Other than some narrow absorption lines, the sun's spectrum is like that of a blackbody at that temperature.

A 5800 K blackbody has about 7.8% of its output in the UVA (although most of this range is unaffected by ozone) and about 2.2% of its output in the UVB. Changing the atmosphere's transparency to these wavelength ranges will affect surface temperature.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

Oxygen just absorbs UV of wavelengths shorter than somewhere around 200 nm. Ozone absorbs longer wavelengths up to about 300-310 nm.

The Antarctic has sunlight half the time, just like every other location in the world.

They have been tracking the ozone hole since 1979, and it did a lot of growing from then to the mid 1990's.

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- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

No sunshine over the Antarctic? Really? Have a look at

which is the webcam at the South Pole. The archive image (Sept 21) has a good shot of the sun. The blurb says

"In order to preserve the life of the camera, it is tilted down onto the snow when the sun is in the field of view, which occurs for several weeks around sunset (March) and sunrise (September) when the sun marches in a circle above the horizon."

Between September and March there is continuous sunshine.

At least you referred to "hole" in inverted commas, which actually merely refers to a region of depleted ozone. There are 50 years of measurements, the "hole" has been observable since about 1980

-- Regards Malcolm Remove sharp objects to get a valid e-mail address

Reply to
Malcolm Moore

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