Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond. 

Have you noticed something interesting?  The “There is NO global warming.  It’s all a scientific conspiracy” people have gotten really quiet lately.  I haven’t heard any radio talk show hosts or prominent (and not so prominent) scientists say “Global warming is a myth” for quite a while now.  Perhaps the preponderance of the evidence is beginning to overwhelm even the most hardened skeptic.  Now, if we could only mobilize the wherewithal to do something about it.

There’s new evidence for global warming from the top and the bottom of the world.  Of course, there really is no top and bottom; a sphere doesn’t have sides.  But if the sphere is consistently spinning, it becomes possible to designate the spin points.  Of course which point you designate as top and which one you designate as bottom is purely arbitrary.  I have a world map in my office given to me by a friend who lives in Australia.  It says “Australia.  No longer Down Under” and as you can see, things look significantly different in this worldview.

But no matter what your worldview, the spin axes of Earth are traditionally the coldest parts of the planet because the Earth is tilted as it spins.  This means that each of the spin axes is in darkness six months of the year, which leads to significantly colder temperatures.  And these places of eternal cold are the ones most noticeably affected by a general warming of the planet.

Our first evidence comes from the land mass at the lower left of our slightly skewed map.  In case you’re having trouble recognizing it, it’s the world’s largest island; Greenland.  This map distorts Greenland, as do all Mercator projections.  Greenland isn’t really bigger than Australia and conventional maps stretch it way out of proportion.  This satellite image shows an amazing cloud-free image of Greenland and enables you to realize that the Vikings must have been drunk out of their minds when they named it. Even though this image probably doesn’t show the shape of Greenland you remember from all those years of staring at the Mercator projections on your classroom walls, I wouldn’t plant this outline of Greenland permanently in your head either.  This picture was taken in 2001, and the next photo shows the southern tip of our largest island in 2006.
	Greenland 2001
	It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there’s a whole lot of melting going on.  And as I mentioned in a previous article, all that cold, cold water is being dumped in on top of the Gulf Stream and we have no clear idea how that will affect the world ocean conveyor belt of water. The other evidence for global warming isn’t really an effect; it’s a cause.  Scientists recently reported that the ozone hole over Antarctica is the biggest and deepest it’s ever been.  In a Reuters news release Paul Newman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said, "From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles."
Greenland 2006

If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach a size of about 8.9 million to 9.3 million square miles, about the size of North America.  This year’s hole is much bigger than North America.

The ozone layer shields Earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, and the layer thins out over the South Pole each year, primarily because human-made compounds release ozone-eating chlorine and bromine gases into the stratosphere. This image was taken on Sept. 24. The blue and purple colors represent areas where there is the least ozone. Greens and yellows indicate places with more ozone.

Is less ozone cause for alarm?  You bet it is!  That ozone layer lets in more ultraviolet and hence more energy and ultimately more heat.  Of course, I did find one naysayer, proving that they all haven’t gone into the woodwork (or the rising water!). 

A New Zealand scientist says that the largest hole ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere ozone layer is not a cause for alarm.  Greg Bodeker, from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, says the hole varies a lot from year to year and it will retract again.  He says the ozone layer is recovering in general and should be fully repaired in the next sixty or seventy years.

Sixty or seventy years, hmmm?  I’ll be willing to bet that Greg Bodeker won’t be around to see if he’s right or not.  And whether your worldview is upside down or rightside up (whatever that is), I’ll also be willing to bet that you and me and Greg Bodeker and everybody on the planet will be feeling the effects of global warming for a very long time.

Cruise on over to the Deep Website at www.thedeepradioshow.com to learn more about global warming and many other topics.  Enjoy!