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Ozone is the centrepiece of our show this week, with Dr Olaf Morgenstern of NIWA’s Central Otago atmospheric science lab (celebrating its 50th birthday at the moment) explaining the ins and outs of the ozone holes north and south, and their impacts on the climate system. Plus tornadoes, heatwaves, UN negotiations at an impasse, more melting in the Arctic, airships, see-through solar cells and Google’s solar towers. No John Cook this time — he’s been too busy launching his book (good luck with that John!).
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News & commentary:
[0:09:00] Tornadoes: NZ Met Service blog post on the Albany tornado, and Jeff Masters on the April US tornado outbreak. Frogblog comment (scroll down to comment by “Jimmy”).
Britain has hottest easter since records began (1960) and and the warmest April in more than 350 years: BBC.
Major polluters say 2011 climate deal “not doable”.
New analysis of Antarctic ice cores shows that CO2 increases start within a couple of hundred years of warming beginning at ice age terminations (the famous “lag” some sceptics claim disproves CO2/warming link much shorter than previously thought): New Scientist.
New Arctic report suggests sea level could rise by 1.6m by end of century:
“The observed changes in sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, in the mass of the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic ice caps and glaciers over the past 10 years are dramatic and represent an obvious departure from the long-term patterns,” AMAP said in the executive summary: CBS News.
Chinese icebreaker to circumnavigate Arctic this summer.
Interview: [0:31:00] Dr Olaf Morgenstern of NIWA’s Lauder atmospheric science lab.
Ozone link to Aussie rainfall here, and this paper (not mentioned in the programme) explains some of the competition between ozone and greenhouse gas forcing (with good diagram of atmospheric circulation).
Solutions
[0:58:00]Airships as low-carbon freight carriers.
Google invests in Mojave solar thermal power: Guardian, Fast Company.
New cheap fuel cell catalysts.
Thanks to our media partners: Celsias.co.nz, Scoop and KiwiFM.
Theme music: A Drop In The Ocean by The Bads.