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Ozone Hole Getting Smaller
snark42 writes "According to Reuters and some other sources the hole in the ozone layer shrank 20% this year to a mere 9 million square miles. Of course scientists caution this would have to continue for at least a couple more years to be a trend or anything to get excited about."
While this is good news, I hope it isn't seen by governments as an excuse to ease their environmental burdens in favour of bowing to economic/corporate pressures, and, I really hope it isn't seen as yet another excuse by the US government to duck out for even longer on signing the Kyoto Accords.
I realize the above accords don't directly affect the ozone layer, but, ask anyone on the street - the hole in the Ozone layer and the "Greenhouse Effect" are the same thing right? Maybe the hole lets more heat in or something...
It is a sad state of affairs when one feels so cynical, that the first thing that occurs when a hint of good news comes along, is, how will those in power exploit this?
Reporting this suggests everything will be OK in 5 years - 20% in a year - just 80% to go hey!!
... certainly 20 years, actually I never claimed.' 'THANK you very much its 8:59 time for traffic'
Of course this could be nothing to do with anything - and simply be an anomoly, a measuring error, a rogue reading, or true. Until everyone has a basic degree of scientific understanding this kind of news will hit the headlines and be presented as a Good Thing. Which is isn't - its neither good not bad.
A bit like the medical researcher on the radio every few weeks being introduced as talking about a 'newfound cure for cancer' and saying 'this is certainly an exciting development' being asked 'so when will it actually be used to cure cancer' and having to say 'well... possibly never,
Please tell me how exempting the fastest growing, most poluting economy on the face of the planet will make one bit of difference.
Progress that's not all-encompassing still continues to be progress.
~jeff
CFCs are not released by volcanoes. The article clearly states that it is the sulphur from volcanoes that generates PSCs, which are the surface catalyst required for ozone chemistry. It is obvious that at this time we cannot do anything about sulphur releases from volcanoes but we can do something about CFC production and release. Is your arguement that since we cannot solve all of the problems we should not try to solve any of them?
Nobody ever proposed such a thing.
First, if you're going to be a smart-ass perhaps you should get your facts right. Volcanos don't spew CFCs. They spew other chemicals (mostly sulphur compounds) which destroy the ozone layer.
You're argumenting that since volcanos damage the ozone layer, it's OK if we humans contribute further to the destruction.
That's stupid. We can't do anything about the former, we can certainly do something about the latter. Why shouldn't we? UV radiation has been an increasing problem in the polar regions.
I live in Sweden. The skin cancer rate here has tripled since the 50's.
By the same rationale, we shouldn't bother about nuclear waste either. After all, there's natural background radiation out there which causes cancer too.
The Earth is fairly resillient, much more so than we humans are. The Earth will survive just about anything we do to it, but we are at risk. The argument that there are no (or minimal) dangers ignores the fact that skin cancer exists. It ignores the fact that there is a hole in the ozone. The Montreal Protocol has been a major step forward to eliminating/minimizing those chemicals that we know deplete the Ozone layer.
The other thing that may contribute to the Ozone layer growing back would be global warming, as the ozone depletion effect requires very cold temperatures to do the spectacular damage it has done to the pole. (see Univeristy of Cambridge.)
Some interesting facts:
InnerWeb
Freud might say that Intelligent Design is religion's ID.
Why do you think that China is the most polluting economy? Of course having ~1 billion inhabitants it is going to be quite high up there, but the worlds most polluting economy must in all fairness said to be the US, where 4% of the worlds population produce 25% of the worlds greenhouse gases (according to this link)
Of course wikipedia tells us that China comes second.
Science has not, nor will it ever save my life. I am going to die, and science can not stop that. We're all dying.
Yes, but science has greatly increased the lifespan and quality of life of the average person. Unless you don't consider that worthwhile...
It's like the housewife who goes to the mall to buy several pairs of shoes. "I saved fifteen dollars!" "Yes dear, but you spent $70."
If she was going to buy the shoes regardless if they were on sale, then she did save $15.
People's desire to believe they are right is much stronger than their desire to be right.
So, lemmie get this straight:
The hole gets 2% bigger, scientists freak out, instantly blaming pollution and saying we need to change. Then, when the hole shrinks by 20%, "scientists caution this would have to continue for at least a couple more years to be a trend or anything to get excited about."
Is it just me, or does it seem these scientists are protraying the facts in such a way to continue their funding?
Could this have something to do with the increasing collapse of ice shelves in the Antarctic? Perhaps there is some relationship between the Ozone hole beginning to shrink and the collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf, which both coincidentally happened in 2002. Maybe the collapse and accellerated glacier movements triggered some environmental chain reaction that affected the Ozone hole, but in a superficial way that temporarily masks a continued climate change.
Of course scientists caution this would have to continue for at least a couple more years to be a trend or anything to get excited about.
Isn't it funny that when there is good news about the climate, "scientists" tells us that we shouldn't "get excited about it," yet when there is apparently bad news, these same scientists demands that we must act "before it's too late."