Antarctica is not cooling after all

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-antarctica24-2009jan24,0,4040354.story

Antarctica is not cooling after all
New findings show that although temperatures have dropped slightly in the
continent's east, they have risen enough in the west to result in an
overall warming trend.
By Thomas H. Maugh II

January 24, 2009

Scientists have long believed that Antarctica has been bucking the global
warming trend, but that is not the case, new research shows.

East Antarctica, as assorted studies have shown, has been cooling
recently, but the remainder of the continent is warming at a rate that
offsets the cooling, according to satellite and ground data.

Global-warming skeptics have pointed to the presumed cooling of the
continent as evidence that researchers' computer projections of climate
change are in error, but the new findings reported Thursday appear to
refute their criticisms.

"We now see warming as taking place on all seven of the Earth's continents
in accord with what models predict as a response to greenhouse gases,"
coauthor Eric J. Steig of the University of Washington said at a news
conference about the report published in the journal Nature.

Steig and his colleagues found that during the last 50 years temperatures
for the entire continent rose an average of 0.2 degree Fahrenheit per
decade, about the same as the rest of the world.

In West Antarctica, the average has been closer to 0.3 degree per decade.
East Antarctica, which at an elevation of 10,000 feet is an average of
4,000 feet higher than the west, has warmed slightly over the half-century
but has exhibited a cooling trend in recent decades.

Researchers attribute the cooling to the ozone hole that stretches over
large sections of the region during the winter. The hole is caused by
chlorofluorocarbons that have been released into the atmosphere, and it
lets reflected sunlight escape to space.

The ozone-depleting chemicals have been banned, and researchers expect the
ozone hole to be closed by the middle of this century. By that time, the
continent should be warming at a much higher rate, Steig said.

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