Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Do They Really Think We're That Stupid?

A friend pointed out this story about Gorebal Warning:

Remember those nasty CFCs and how they were destroying the ozone layer, causing untold harm to the environment? Well, it now turns out - if these clowns are to be believed - that because the entire French nation stopped using aerosol deodorants a decade ago, the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic is healing nicely.

Read the whole thing, including the now-boilerplate prediction of melting Antarctic ice:
Scientists warn that as the hole closes up in the next few decades, temperatures on the continent could rise by around 3C on average, with melting ice contributing to a global sea-level rise of up to 1.4m.
This is an interesting theory, which neglects a very important fact about Antarctica: With the exception of the areas near the coast (such as the Palmer Peninsula) and the sheets of ice over water (and have therefore already contributed to sea level by virtue of the fact that floating ice displaces exactly the volume of water as the same ice melted would occupy), the temperatures in Antarctica are substantially below freezing. A rise in temperatures from -12°C to -9°C would melt nothing. Only in the marginal areas on land where the temperature now goes above -3°C would any melting happen at all.

At this point, it should be obvious to the casual observer that the AGW advocates are flinging poop at random and hoping some of it sticks.