Anybody remember Chloroflourocarbons (CFC’s)? The chemicals, used in aerosols and refrigerants, were a big deal in the 1980’s and 1990’s – the major environmental threat of that era. CFC’s were going to destroy the ozone layer and kill us all.

Turns out, maybe CFC’s were even worse than everybody thought.

A new peer-reviewed study by Qing-Bin Lu, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Waterloo in Canada, says that CFC’s caused global warming. Lu relied on measurements from satellites, weath balloons and ground-based weather stations to conclude that CFC’s and cosmic radiation were the cause of the global warming occurring from 1975-1998.

“My findings do not agree with the climate models that conventionally thought that greenhouse gases, mainly CO2, are the major culprits for the global warming seen in the late 20th century,” Lu said. “Instead, the observed data show that CFCs conspiring with cosmic rays most likely caused both the Antarctic ozone hole and global warming. These findings are totally unexpected and striking, as I was focused on studying the mechanism for the formation of the ozone hole, rather than global warming.”

And more – this is where it gets good…

His conclusions are based on observations that from 1950 up to now, the climate in the Arctic and Antarctic atmospheres has been completely controlled by CFCs and cosmic rays, with no CO2 impact.

“Most remarkably, the total amount of CFCs, ozone-depleting molecules that are well-known greenhouse gases, has decreased around 2000,” Lu said. “Correspondingly, the global surface temperature has also dropped. In striking contrast, the CO2 level has kept rising since 1850 and now is at its largest growth rate.”

In his research, Lu discovers that while there was global warming from 1950 to 2000, there has been global cooling since 2002. The cooling trend will continue for the next 50 years, according to his new research observations.

If you’re into reading peer-reviewed scientific literature, you can read the whole thing here.

Whew. Guess the environmentalists were right about something after all. Thanks, guys. Can we go back to living our lives now?

Hat Tip: Roger Simon at Pajamas Media.