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United Nations Says Earth's Ozone Layer Is Repairing (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The ozone layer, which protects us from ultraviolet light, looks to be successfully healing after gaping holes were discovered in the 1980s. The Northern Hemisphere could be fully fixed by the 2030s and Antarctica by the 2060s. A new United Nations report says it's an example of what global agreements can achieve. The ozone layer had been damaged by man-made chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) effectively began eating away at the ozone. CFCs were found in things like spray cans, fridges, foam insulation and air conditioners. As a result, in 1985 a gaping hole in the ozone over the South Pole was discovered. An international agreement called the Montreal Protocol made sure that businesses came up with replacements for these damaging products. 180 countries signed up to it. In signing the protocol, those countries agreed to phase out chemicals like CFCs.

5 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Re:UN also says that the ozone layer ... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or do we go back to CFCs, knowing that those actually cool the earth (which is what we want)

    ...are you insane? CFCs are among some of the most potent greenhouse gases. If anything, the Montreal Protocol is credited with contributing to slowing the warming trend in the 1990s and throwing off some of the predictions of late 1980s.

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    Ezekiel 23:20
  2. Re:UN also says that the ozone layer ... by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If the holes were discovered today, you all know exactly what would happen, corporate propaganda bullshit, it would impact corporate profits and action would be banned. Corporate for profit hospitals, sun screen manufacturers and the pharmaceuticals would cheer rises in skin cancer and demand no action be taken to protect profits. Making the US blowing up Yemen (blow up more, kill more, there are profits to be had, kill, kill, kill) for profit, sick fuckers, look like nothing compared to the millions that would die from cancer especially in the third world, oh yes indeedy.

    Nothing much will be done about climate change until the properties of the psychopathically rich and greedy, those underwaterfront properties start going underwater and then they will demand socialised property insurance where the poor have to pay into an underwater front property fund to pay for the lost underwater front mansions, psychopath is as psychopath does. When the scam gets howled down, then rapid change will occur to protect those properties and fuck everyone else, the poor have to pay for that protection and be thankful their employers do not kick them in the genitals each time they pick up a paypacket to remind them who physically dominates whom. If you are stupid enough to allow yourself to be kicked all of the time, then you fucking deserve it.

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    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  3. Re:If Trump did his thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not true.

    It's not the country that still uses CFC that profited from this agreement. Ignoring this agreement doesn't result in a net profit, because none of the CFC tainted products can be sold abroad. It's the country that came up with the replacement for CFCs that profited.

    You set a goal, e.g. cut CO2 using solar and wind. The country that has the most money available to research that, solves the problem of Solar and wind and so on, and takes the prize by being ahead of the curve.

    You cannot rescue coal, because nobody wants to breath mercury.

  4. Re:Contradictory Reports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    How can you people not understand that problems can exist at the same time as they abate? Does everything have to be a binary "Good/Solved" vs "Bad/Disaster"?

    You had a pond that was smelling bad because people keep dumping sewage in it, so everyone next to the pond agrees to stop dumping sewage there. The smell starts to get better. You all discover someone is still crapping in the pond. Does that mean the situation can't be improving? Do you not understand that something an improve, but at a slower rate due to a few existing sources of bad stuff? You go from a bunch of sources of sewage to one person's crap, yet by your reasoning, nothing has improved.

    How is a contradiction that the ozone hole is shrinking despite one existing CFC source? A bunch of CFC sources were removed, so there are a lot less CFCs in the atmosphere, even if someone is still emitting some. Hence the ozone hole can still shrink. Because of the existing source it shrinks slower, but still shrinking (this is explicitly stated in your linked article).

  5. Re:Contradictory Reports by hyades1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Did you even bother to read the article you linked to?

    It says this: "It comes after NASA satellites provided the first direct evidence the ozone hole had shrunk in January, a finding welcomed by Dr Jon Shanklin, one of the meteorologists who first discovered the ozone hole, as a 'definite good news story'.

    And this: "However, in a new paper published in the journal Nature, an international team of scientists report an unexpected finding of CFC-11, one of the major ozone-depleting chemicals.

    "The rate of this substance's decline in the atmosphere has slowed by approximately 50 per cent since 2012."

    So in other words, the ozone layer is still recovering, just like the story says, and CFC's continue to decline, though not as fast as projected. There is no "disparity", apparent or real.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.