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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 6, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1993

NEWS...
RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d93jan117

Global warming hastens ozone depletion: This is the possibility suggested by numerical model results reported in the Nov. 19 issue of Nature ("Possibility of an Arctic Ozone Hole in a Doubled-CO₂ Climate," J. Austin, N. Butchart, K.P. Shine, Nature, 360(6401), 221-225, Nov. 19, 1992.), which comes about through increased formation of polar stratospheric clouds. Results are discussed in Chem. Eng. News (p. 5, Nov. 23) and New Scientist (p. 16, Nov. 28).

Item #d93jan118

New warming estimate: Paleoclimatic evidence reported in the Dec. 10 issue of Nature ("Deriving Global Climate Sensitivity from Palaeoclimate Reconstructions," M.I. Hoffert (Dept. Appl. Sci., New York Univ., New York NY 10003), C. Covey, 573-576) suggests global temperature would increase 2.3·C from a doubling of CO₂, consistent with estimates based on climate models. (See Prof. Pubs.--Gen. Interest., and New York Times, pp. C1, C9, Dec. 15.)

Item #d93jan119

Preindustrial CO₂ levels determined from air bubbles in ice cores have been called into question by scientists from Norway and Japan, who can expect fierce debate from others involved in ice core analysis as discussed in New Scientist (p. 15, Aug. 22). Their paper and one with similar concerns are listed in this issue's [Global Climate Change Digest, vol 6, no 1, January 1993] section on preindustrial levels of CO₂ (see Prof. Pubs.--Paleoclim.).

Item #d93jan120

New evidence of rapid climate change was reported at the fall American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco to a standing-room only crowd. Cores from the Greenland ice cap show extreme shifts in just a year or two between dusty, glacial conditions and warmer weather, raising the question whether greenhouse gases could cause the present climate to jump into a different mode. The results and comments of various researchers are discussed in Science News, p. 404, Dec. 12.

Item #d93jan121

Model comparison results: Interim results of the Model Evaluation Consortium for Climate Assessment (MECCA), an international partnership involving industry, government and academic groups from the U.S., Japan, Italy and France, are summarized in J. Air Waste Mgmt. Assoc., p. 1620, Dec. Among the key findings: as CO₂ increases, the corresponding rise in global temperature decreases, apparently because of saturation of the atmosphere's water vapor (not CO₂) absorption bands.

Item #d93jan122

Ozone expedition summary: Physics Today (pp. 17-19, July 1992) gives a substantial synopsis of results of last winter's Airborne Arctic Stratospheric Expedition and related midlatitude measurements.

Item #d93jan123

Carbon cycling project: The Electric Power Research Institute of Palo Alto, California, is supporting a new project, which for the first time will link the best terrestrial and ocean models into a state-of-the-art global carbon model. By the end of five years, the project is expected to significantly narrow the uncertainties regarding the location and magnitude of carbon sinks, providing useful results to policy makers. (From EPRI's Environ. Update, Nov. 1992.) Contact Lou Pitelka, EPRI (415-855-2969).