There is a huge difference between tropospheric/human made aerosols which are reaching at most up to the inversion layer (a few thousand meter) and volcanic aerosols which are injected into the stratosphere (10 km and higher):

- The lifetime of tropospheric aerosols is average 4 days, most is raining out or drops out even as dry deposit. The lifetime of stratospheric aerosols is months (for fine ash) to years (for SO2), before dropping out. That means that most of the human-made aerosols are found at a few thousand km in the main wind direction from the sources (like US aerosols in Greenland and UK “acid rain” in Scandinavia).

- There is a strong barrier between the tropospheric NH and SH: the ITCZ. Even for non-condensing gases (like CO2), there is a lag of 6 months to 1 year between the NH and SH to pass the barrier. That means that CO2 levels at the South Pole are near the same as in Barrow (as yearly averages), but with a lag of about a year. For aerosols, where about 90% is emitted in the NH, most is rained out before even reaching the SH… Some indication (to be taken with a grain of salt) can be found at the IPCC (2001) report: http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/fig6-7.htm

Thus it is very unlikely that you will find much US pollution in Antarctic ice cores…

Anna Lang,

Thanks for the info! I used the University library of Antwerp several times, they have Science and Nature (in different buildings…), and a possibility for on-line research, not for outsiders, but you may ask for it and the librarian will do the search for you (but of course that is vey limited). Anyway I will try it via our local library and see if they can provide access via the Internet…

It’s clear that the image used in AIT was the wrong one. That got me wondering the effect on this scene had Gore actually used “Thompson’s thermometer”. Here’s a quick mock-up:
[photo of Gore with new graph inserted]
Hockey stick? Yep.
Much warmer today than MWP? Yep.
Substantial difference to the movie? Nope.

At #147, 162, 174 and 195, I asked him to tell us what the missing units on his vertical scale were. On searching back through the first “Dr. Thompson’s Thermometer thread” ((www.climateaudit.org/?p=2328), I found that Steve had actually posted this graph in comment #16. Indeed, the vertical axis, which is unlabeled in JohnV’s mock-up, has as its units z-scores of isotope enrichment, not temperature at all. Has Thompson attempted to calibrate it to instrumental temperature anywhere? (as opposed to calibrating it to MBH99) If not, this is just Dr. Thompson’s Z-mometer, and not a “thermometer” at all.

In a resent episode of South Park, the walls to “imaginary land” are mistakenly torn down. Inside the imaginary land, “manbearpig” resides (along with Santa and Luke Skywalker). Later in that episode Al Gore shows up with his brand new Nobel peace price around his neck, screaming and shouting – “I told you so, I told you so”.
The episode refers to an earlier episode a year or so back which was dedicated to Al Gore and his hunt for the “manbearpig” (a creature which is half man, half bear and half pig) he just knows exist. The boys feel petty for Al Gore and helps him track down the “manbearpig” as anybody else does.

Don’t you watch South Park?