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Is it true that as a whole Antarctica has been getting colder and that scare stories concentrate on the peninsular which has been getting warmer but only constitutes a tiny fraction of the total Antarctic landmass?
Richard Roberts, Colchester
Professor Mitchell: Observations of temperatures have obviously been very scarce over Antarctica over the 20th century, but the evidence has pointed to it being likely that central Antarctica has cooled in recent decades because of the Ozone hole. Ozone is a strong greenhouse gas so reductions in its concentration will lead to a cooling, offsetting any warming due to increases in carbon dioxide. The warming on the Antarctic Peninsula probably has more to do with the strengthening of the westerly winds around Antarctica than the direct effects of increases in greenhouse gases.
There is some evidence from model simulations that increases in greenhouse gases may lead to increases in westerly winds in high latitudes.
