Laughing Gas Is Major Threat To Ozone Layer

Hugh Pickens writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports that according to new research, nitrous oxide, the colorless, sweet-smelling gas with a long history as a medical and dental anesthetic is the next big threat to Earth's protective ozone layer. Its role in destroying ozone has long been recognized, as well as its role as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas but the new study puts nitrous oxide's ability to deplete ozone into numbers comparable to those used for other ozone-depleting gases covered by the 1987 Montreal Protocol. The researchers note that the health of the ozone layer has been improving since the adoption of the protocol and that nitrous oxide looms large today as an artificial destroyer of the ozone layer, in part because the emissions of other harmful chemicals have been so sharply reduced." (Continues.) "Globally, Earth's ozone layer has thinned by 5 to 6 percent since 1980, before CFCs and their ilk came into wide use, according to Akkihebbal Ravishankara, who led the study. He and his colleagues note that 6 percent may appear to be a small number, but it still can lead to significant effects on organisms at Earth's surface. The researchers did not make any policy recommendations in light of their finding. 'It is not for us to gauge how much risk there is,' says Ravishankara. In any event, Ravishankara says, at the moment researchers could not say with confidence 'how much nitrous oxide comes from where.'"

Comments

hahaha

[LeonN]

Hahahahahahahahahaahahaha we are destroying our ozone layer, hahahahahahahaaha

Re:To the Global Warming naysayers

[MosesJones]

Any global agenda behind which there is a "political will" is innately corrupt, bullshit, or something that they stand to benefit or gain personally from. Our politicians aren't trying to fix world hunger are they? No? But we care SO MUCH about a prediction that at our current use something which will kill off life on this planet in hundreds of thousands of years?

You sir are an idiot, a class A idiot. In an article that talked about the successful resolution to the Ozone problem as a result of joint political will you claim that anything from politics is always wrong.

Politics is about getting the leaders you vote for, and quite clearly I can guess who you'd vote for out of Bush (an idiot) and Obama (not an idiot).

Re:Ozone depletion...

[mrmeval]

Without a boogie man these researchers would not be able to get the handouts that keep them spewing questionable data. They were too effective at getting CFC's banned and now are jumping on anything that might get them funds.

your mom

[Deadplant]

Your mom is a major threat to the ozone layer!
lolz
wut? /high on laughing gas