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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 2, NUMBER 9, SEPTEMBER 1989

NEWS...
RESEARCH NEWS NOTES

Item #d89sep10

"Ozone Hole Surprises the Scientists Yet Again," New Scientist, p. 28, July 29, 1989. Satellite measurements made by NASA revealed a much weaker ozone hole in the Antarctic spring of 1988 than observed in the previous year. High-altitude wind fluctuations played a role in the 1988 event, which does not contradict the present understanding of the role of CFCs in ozone depletion. (See two related papers in PROF. PUBS./OF GEN. INTEREST, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Sep. 1989.)

Item #d89sep11

"Depletion on Volcanic Aerosols," R.L. Jones, Nature, pp. 269-270, July 27, 1989. Discusses implications of a paper by Hofmann and Solomon which argues that the El Chichon eruption of 1982 caused a 15 percent local ozone depletion through heterogeneous reactions on sulfuric acid particles. (See Global Climate Change Digest, PROF. PUBS./ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY, June 1989.)

Item #d89sep12

"Ancient Ice Reveals Sudden Shift in Climate," R. Monastersky, Sci. News, p. 374, June 17, 1989; "Ice-Age Clues for a Warmer World," D. Peel, Nature, pp. 508-509, June 15. Analysis of Greenland ice cap cores shows that the North Atlantic region took less than 20 years to shift from glacial conditions to warmer ones at the end of the last (Younger Dryas) ice age. Such rapid transition may be related to switching between different modes of deep water circulation, with possible implications for greenhouse warming. (See Dansgaard et al. article in PROF. PUBS./OF GEN. INTEREST, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Sep. 1989, and "Human Activity May 'Flip' Climate from One Stable State to Another," New Scientist, p. 42, June 24, 1989.)

Item #d89sep13

"Volcanoes Can Muddle the Greenhouse," R.A. Kerr, Science, pp. 127-128, July 14, 1989; "Questioning the Cooling Effects of Volcanoes," F. Flam, Science News, p. 359, June 10. Recent work indicates that the largest volcanic eruptions can temporarily lower global temperatures for two or three years, confusing any efforts to detect greenhouse warming. (See Mass and Portman article in PROF. PUBS./OF GEN. INTEREST, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Sep. 1989.)

Item #d89sep14

"Rising Seas May Herald Global Warming," ibid., p. 367. University of Toronto scientists have used computer calculations to remove from sea level records the effect of glacial rebound (the very slow rising of land after the retreat of ice age glaciers). They find that sea levels are rising at a fairly uniform rate of 2.4 millimeters a year, possibly an indication of global warming. (See paper by Peltier and Tushingham in PROF. PUBS./SEA LEVEL, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Sep. 1989.)

Item #d89sep15

"Pollution Measures May Worsen Greenhouse Effect," New Scientist, p. 32, June 10, 1989. Researchers at the University of East Anglia conclude that increased cloud cover resulting from sulfate particles might have offset half of the greenhouse heating of the global climate in the 20th century. (See Wigley paper, Global Climate Change Digest, PROF. PUBS./GEN. INTEREST, Aug. 1989)