Ozone Recovery
Some good news for the environment:
Earth's protective ozone layer, which was notably thinning in 1980, could be fully recovered by midway through this century, climate scientists said yesterday.
The ozone layer shields the planet from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation, but human-made chemicals - notably the chlorofluorocarbons found in some refrigerants and aerosol propellants - depleted this stratospheric ozone.
The scientists said the ozone layer's comeback was due in large part to compliance with a 1987 international agreement called the Montreal Protocol, which aimed to limit emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals.
"These results confirm the Montreal Protocol and its amendments have succeeded in stopping the loss of ozone in the stratosphere," said Eun-Su Yang of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who led a team that analysed the data.
"At the current recovery rate ... the global ozone layer could be restored to 1980 levels - the time that scientists first noticed the harmful effects human activities were having on atmospheric ozone - some time in the middle of this century," Dr Yang said.
Does this mean, perish the thought, that climate scientists were actually right? Or are we just lucky?
An interesting sidenote: the scientist who suggested to use CFCs (a chemical less toxic than the previously used coolants) also suggested to use the element lead (a mental retarding agent) in petrol. It has taken decades to have lead-based additives removed from petrol despite protesting from Clair Patterson and others.
Earth's protective ozone layer, which was notably thinning in 1980, could be fully recovered by midway through this century, climate scientists said yesterday.
The ozone layer shields the planet from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation, but human-made chemicals - notably the chlorofluorocarbons found in some refrigerants and aerosol propellants - depleted this stratospheric ozone.
The scientists said the ozone layer's comeback was due in large part to compliance with a 1987 international agreement called the Montreal Protocol, which aimed to limit emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals.
"These results confirm the Montreal Protocol and its amendments have succeeded in stopping the loss of ozone in the stratosphere," said Eun-Su Yang of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who led a team that analysed the data.
"At the current recovery rate ... the global ozone layer could be restored to 1980 levels - the time that scientists first noticed the harmful effects human activities were having on atmospheric ozone - some time in the middle of this century," Dr Yang said.
Does this mean, perish the thought, that climate scientists were actually right? Or are we just lucky?
An interesting sidenote: the scientist who suggested to use CFCs (a chemical less toxic than the previously used coolants) also suggested to use the element lead (a mental retarding agent) in petrol. It has taken decades to have lead-based additives removed from petrol despite protesting from Clair Patterson and others.
posted by Engels at 10:58 am
2 Comments:
The oll Montreal Protocol. Which if ratified promised to deliver a busty blond off the arm of every tom dick or harry who cared to skim over it's long arduous paragraphs. Themms were the days when a bird in teh hand was worth at least 2 in teh bush, and a Canadian Luny was worth more than 92.89 Japanese yen...
The loonie and the toonie. Those were the days.
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