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Antarctic Ozone Hole Leveling Off

Posted by Hemos on from the getting-smaller dept.

twistedfuck writes: "An Irish Time article reports that the size of the hole in the antartican ozone layer is levelling off and should begin reducing in size. It seems like it should be welcome news but it is tempered by the fact that more UV radiation will reach the southern hemisphere this year because the hole will persist longer. Unfortunately I can not find any details regarding the NOAA report on their website." Update: 11/06 17:31 GMT by H :Thanks to Isaac Lewis, NOAA Sysadmin and Slashdot reader, for pointing out more information, as well as pointing out the ozonelayer site.

2 of 353 comments (clear)

  1. Additional info at EPA site by cats-paw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was just looking into this not too long ago. Strangely enough, we met someone from Israel while we were travelling in New Zealand who said it had closed, which I was sure was wrong. Turns out it's still there.

    And remember it's not really a hole, i.e. there is ozone present, it's just at significantly lower levels.

    Here are a couple of sites I found useful :

    www.epa.gov/ozone/science/hole/holehome.html
    www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/

    When we were in New Zealand the sun feels different ! It feels very intense and somewhat uncomfortable, and it was only the first month of spring. You HAVE to use sunscreen.

    --
    Absolute statements are never true
  2. Re:Hooray for regulation? by legoboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No, but it is what the preponderance of the evidence suggests.

    a) Upon seeing problems, we've heavily cut back on all sorts of emissions under the belief that it will fix the problem.
    b) Results of a) (above) will take sixty more years to manifest.
    c) Problem is disappearing long before results of a) are known.

    Therefore, perhaps a) was a faulty assumption that costs businesses billions annually, and the ozone hole is really just a cyclical thing?

    That said, lower emissions are good, if only for two reasons - one, so that whilst canoeing the Indian Arm of the Fraser River, I don't know that Vancouver is (that way) due to the brown sky. Two, because they *do* seem to be responsible for all sorts of human respiratory problems. You know, if environmentalists weren't all a bunch of crackpots who use pseudoscience to justify whatever their jihad of the day is, I'd probably identify myself as one.

    PS - The ICE at the NORTH POLE is MELTING!!! Oh NO!!! ... Oh wait, that happens all the time?

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    If a tree falls on an anonymous coward yelling 'first post' in the forest, does anybody hear?