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Upper Ozone Depletion Declining

Posted by timothy on from the better-than-increasing dept.

Silas writes "This SF Chronicle article (and many others) reports that destruction of the upper part of Earth's ozone layer has slowed because of the international effort more than a decade ago to ban ozone-damaging aerosols. More about the study and techniques used is here. We're still a long way away from recovery, but it's a nice example of humans taking an active role in reversing some of the damage we've done."

3 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Misunderstanding by Dibblah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No. It's an example of us stopping screwing it up quite so quickly.
    The rate of depletion has slowed != everything's OK again.

    1. Re:Misunderstanding by mlush · · Score: 4, Insightful
      No. It's an example of us stopping screwing it up quite so quickly.

      It is however a good sign, we may have to wait for decades to see ozone levels rising. This news keeps the pressure on to eleminate production of ozone destroying CFC... there still being used in the second and third world.

  2. Re:OR.... by drlock · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have the same question.
    According to this article, "Since ozone is created and destroyed by solar UV radiation, there is some correlation of ozone concentration with 11-year sunspot cycles." (article also give a number of other natural causes of ozone layer change). The SF Chronicle said, "Between 1997 and 2000, the average growth rate of the ozone hole has slowed by approximately 7 percent per decade" That was the exact period of a spike in sunspot activity.
    So how can we prove that it was the meager efforts of us humans that made the change, and not just a natural cycle?