South Pole Aint Melting

[maverick]

i was talking to one of my professors about the notion that the south pole is gettin colder

 

Eelco rohling is one of the leading minds on palaeoclimate and monitors climate fluctuations to very high resolution.

 

mainly from the med and more recently with work we did together on the arabian sea. thework requires a great understanding of polar ice sheet fluctuation too.

 

discuss

[NiteShdw]

* MOVED to Modern Science

[Beawulf]

Interesting, the largest hole in the ozone layer is above Antarctica I would have thought it would be getting warmer as a result of that. Any ideas on the cause of it getting colder?

 

The climate change that has me worried is the disruption of the gulf stream because that would have a severe global impact on climate. I'd be particularly worried if I lived in the UK, without the gulf stream it will get damn cold there.

[GorunNova]

Given the enormous amount of area several Antarctic shelves have lost over the last 10 years, how can anyone say that it isn't melting? ;p

[maverick]

actually it is melting.

 

my bad

[maverick]

climate cycles occur on decadal to 100k cycles.

 

the most recognisable patterns emerge at the formation and melting of the polar ice and these tend to match the orbital parameters of the earth around the sun.

 

a prolonged cooling leads to the establishment of deep ocean currents which transfer water around the globe and transfer heat to northern latitudes.

 

a break down of this circulation system leads to the prevention of heat transfer to high latitudes and the re-establishment of ice sheets which can spread both north and south from the poles.

 

i can show you evidence i found from my dissertation from an actual sediment core in the arabian sea compared to ice core records from greenland

 

pm me if you are interested

[TFMF]

Interesting, the largest hole in the ozone layer is above Antarctica I would have thought it would be getting warmer as a result of that. Any ideas on the cause of it getting colder?

 

The climate change that has me worried is the disruption of the gulf stream because that would have a severe global impact on climate. I'd be particularly worried if I lived in the UK, without the gulf stream it will get damn cold there.

 

i really don't mind the cold here - and i'm in Aberdeen!!! - it's the heat that bothers me - though i did here that there is a chance that the gulf stream might collapse - worrying stuff

 

But what is actually causing all this - is it just us - what are the other factors?

[Beawulf]

tbh I dont know much about how the gulf stream exists, as for who is causing the changes. I'd say humans are playing a large role, but climates have also changed naturally (and devastatingly) in the past.

[TFMF]

The goverments will blame it on natural fluctuations in our climate,yes, but it's just an excuse not to spend money on projects to reduce carbon emmitions and other.....toxic stuff

[maverick]

you can actually read scientific papers on the amount of co2 and other greenhouse gases we pump in to the atmos. but the earths orbit is the primary causing factor of climate change

[Aqua]

As for the ozone hole mentioned earlier, we were taught in school that it was caused by a specific chemical (not a greenhouse chemical either) that has been banned and it will start repairing itself about 30 years from now.

[TFMF]

^ it's only a matter of time before another chemical takes it's place and starts poking more holes in the atmosphere

[Beawulf]

As for the ozone hole mentioned earlier' date=' we were taught in school that it was caused by a specific chemical (not a greenhouse chemical either) that has been banned and it will start repairing itself about 30 years from now.[/quote']

 

It is true that there is a difference between greenhouse gases like CO2, NOX & SOX and elements that damage the ozone layer.

 

Some chemicals that damage the ozone layer are the well known CFCs but also chemicals like methyl chloroform (solvent), carbon tetrachloride. Halons (some fire extinguishers), and methyl bromide (produce/soil fumigant)

 

These break down into chlorine and bromine in the upper atmosphere. Which inturn break down the ozone molecules. The problem is the bromine and chroline atoms are not used up in the chemical reaction. They will remain in the upper atmosphere breaking down ozone indefinately.

 

So even though we have banned CFCs and are reducing the use of the other chemicals, the chlorine and bromine already released will continue to deplete the ozone layer.

 

 

Ironically I guess, if there is climate change from greenhouse gases and we get alot of thunderstorms, that will increase the amount of ozone in the atmosphere ;)

[TFMF]

 

Ironically I guess, if there is climate change from greenhouse gases and we get alot of thunderstorms, that will increase the amount of ozone in the atmosphere ;)

 

perhaps that's Mother Natures way of healing itself :rolleyes:

[maverick]

 

Ironically I guess, if there is climate change from greenhouse gases and we get alot of thunderstorms, that will increase the amount of ozone in the atmosphere ;)

 

perhaps that's Mother Natures way of healing itself :rolleyes:

 

why would it?

 

i cant answer that we probably need an expert to tell us - but storms happen low in the atmos in comparison to the ozone layer dont they?

[TFMF]

I don't really know but the Ozone layer is capable of healing it-self and we really don't know enough about what happens when a storm happens and how it effects the ozone layer

[maverick]

yeh we do its just hard to find but in general i dont think storms affect the ozone. its chemical release into the upper atmos that has been popular theory. i dont know however if it has anything to do with repolarisation of the eart and a weakening of the earths magnetic field.

 

if anyone knows i would be glad to hear about it

[TFMF]

This is Interesting: Ozone Artical

 

It does explain some of the things happening to the OZone layer - I knew it was CFC's that were the main cause for depleting the OZone layer but i didn't know the layer was healing already - i thought it was still growing.....