This Week's Headlines

Naturalism Has Been Hijacked

Sir Paul McCartney Calls for Meat-free Mondays to Combat Climate Change

El Nino is the Main Driver of Global Temperatures

Is Obama Caving Into Coal?

White Rooftops May Help Slow Warming

Australia Pushes for Global Airline Emissions Standards

L.A. Congressman's Global Warming Bill Could Hit Poor Hardest

Eco-Terrorists Threaten Hazelwood Power's Graeme York

Too Little CO2 to End Life on Earth

Tornado Season Just Below Average

This Week's Headlines

The Con is On: How Carbon Credits Neuter Cap & Trade

Watering Down Biofuels

East Coast May Feel Rise in Sea Levels Most

Airlines Reject New Tax to Fight Global Warming

Nansen Corrects Sea-Ice Data

China and U.S. Seek a Truce on Greenhouse Gasses

Realists Challenge Claim of Consensus on Global Warming

Nine Alien Insects to Cause Pain, Illness, Even Death in Britain as Climate Warms

The Man Who Cried Doom

Wear Cork, Save the World!

Should Climate Models Be Accepted as Evidence in a Court of Law

Quote of the Week

Dana Rohrabacher (Republican, CA) at the third annual International Conference on Climate Change:

"Al Gore has been wrong all along! This is outrageous! All of this is wrong! The people who have stifled this debate have an agenda that is just frightening!"

This Week's Headlines

The Breath Tax

Arctic Warmed Much Faster from 1910-1940 than from 1970-2009

I Wish the Earth Were Warming: It Would Save a Lot of Lives

President Obama Folding on Promise to Make Corporations Pay to Pollute?

Texas Kills Solar Bill on Last Minute Motion

Polluters Embrace Carbon-Eating Trees

Pelosi's Chinese Climate Change

Airborne Bacteria Discredit Climate Modeling Dogma

Gas Prices High Enough? Not for Washington

And watch this great video showing the evolution of the Arctic Ice "melt" over the last 30 years:

This Week's Headlines (Continued)

Newspapers Bristle at Environmentalism Being Mocked in New Animated TV Show

Is Global Warming Responsible for Slow Tornado Season?

LA's Big Burn Exposed

Obama's Solution for the Car Companies: Make More Expensive Cars Nobody Wants

Gaseous Emissions

China (World's Biggest Polluter) Says Rich Nations Must Cut Emissions 40 Percent

Gore Calls on World Business Leaders to Push for Climate Deal

The Climate Industrial Complex

PJTV Video: Exposing the Myths of Our Energy Supply and Environment (Video)

Why I Am a Climate Realist

CFC's Responsible for ozone depletion?

GreenWatch reader Wallace wrote in this week, questioning what has become the common assumption that CFC (chlorofluorocarbons) deplete the ozone layer.

"Thank you for bringing up the subject of CFC propelled medications in your article.

This is a serious health problem for a great many people. Not only are the new inhalers less effective, they cause irritation that is not good for the patient and they are much more expensive.

The “do-gooders” in congress are causing egregious harm to those who need the inhalers and they are doing it absolutely needlessly. They are too proud to admit what many of us now know. CFC’s do not harm the “ozone layer” because they can never reach it. Scientists now know that the thinning of the ozone at the poles is a direct result of material ejected from the sun in solar flares entering the atmosphere at the Earth’s magnetic poles combined with the fact that less ozone is produced in polar regions.

The so called “ozone layer” (actually just an area of higher ozone levels) is produced by radiation from the sun interacting with oxygen (O2) in the outer atmosphere. The ozone molecules then migrate down to lower levels because they are heavier than O2 molecules. Eventually they disintegrate before they reach lower levels because ozone is unstable. Two ozone (O3) molecules will react to make three O2 molecules or they will react with some other molecule, like chlorine (which is constantly being released from the oceans).

The stratosphere (so named because it lacks the strong currents of the troposphere and therefore “stratifies”) tends to separate air into its constituent gases in layers. Carbon dioxide, for example, is a little heavier than oxygen (O2) and nitrogen (N2) molecules (1.38 times as heavy as O2) and its presence (as a percentage) declines with altitude until it becomes undetectable. This is important because CFC molecules are much heavier than carbon dioxide. In fact, the most common CFC (R-12) is almost THREE TIMES as heavy as carbon dioxide and nearly FOUR TIMES heavier than oxygen (O2) MOLECULES.

If carbon dioxide can’t get up to the ozone layer, how can the heavier CFC’s get there? In fact, CFC’s have never been detected at those high altitudes.

CFC’s are still some of the very best refrigerants and their being phased out has cost the public billions of dollars.

Just one more way that our Congress is looking out for our best interest!"

(PG): I cannot vouch for the veracity of Wallace's claims, but I am intrigued. Any GreenWatch readers know more about this issue? Email me at greenwatchamericaATgmailDOTcom.

This Week's Headlines

Science Says Climate Change Isn't Fueling Hurricanes

Alaskan Land Rising Faster than Alaskan Sea

Researchers Scale Back Forecast of Sea Level Rise

EPA Focus on Greenhouse Gasses Over Conventional Pollutants Draws Concern

Indiana Says 'No Thanks' to Cap-And-Trade

Arctic Cooling Has Begun

Did Arctic Warming Ever Start? (Arctic non-warming since 1958)

From the "you have got to be kidding me" department: Global Warming May Exceed Infections as Health Threat

Save the Polar Bear: Hysteria and Myth

Doctor's Health Warning on Climate Change