Apparently the hole in the ozone layer above Antartica is stabilizing. Some of you will remember the late 80s, when the hole was discussed a lot in the popular press. It was a huge problem. The hole we made meant that we were losing our protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. We identified that chloroflourocarbons -CFCs- which at the time were used everywhere (such as propellants in aerosol cans, refrigerator coolants) were the chief ozone-depleting substances that we produced.
What did we do? We sat down in Montreal and decided -as a global society- to change our behaviour. International agreements were arrived at to stop producing CFCs (and a range of other related molecules), to serve the greater good.
It seems to have worked. See the article I spotted on the BBC’s news site. Quoting:
It is hoped the hole may “heal” fully over the next 60 years.
Two of the scientists whose work helped alert the world to the existence of a hole in the ozone layer in the 1980s told a conference in Washington they were hopeful that the ozone layer was recovering.
“I’m very optimistic that we will have a normal ozone layer sometime, not in my lifetime, but perhaps in yours,” said Dr David Hofman, who works for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as director of the Global Monitoring Division.
Dr Susan Solomon, of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said she was also optimistic.
Solomon makes some cautionary remarks, though:
“There’s a lot more to be done from a scientific perspective in terms of what I would call accountability.
“I think it’s very important to make sure that we actually measure ozone – not only not getting any worse, but actually starting to improve, to be sure that the actions we have taken internationally have been effective.”
This is what we can do when we pull together! It is a much more enormous task, but this does give one hope that eventually we’ll figure out that we need to urgently change our behaviour over energy, and the production of carbon dioxide when it comes to global warming.
Will we get wise in time?
-cvj
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Remember phosphates in laundry detergent? (70’s) Removing it was toughted as the solution to the choking streams and ponds. See, the phosphates get into the water, cause the algea to go bananas, and it ends up over-oxygenating the fish, which die.
When did we get our follow up? What happened?
Nothing.
99% or more of the phosphates going into streams and ponds is agricultural runnoff. The phosphates make our farms something like 10 times more productive. But the American public is considered too stupid to bother telling them that there is a choice between cheap food and the environment.
Soon we’ll have the choice of cheap food and fuel.
We still have an ozone hole over the Antarctic. Perhaps we could put up an ultraviolet telescope there. Ozone blocks UV. It’s cheaper than putting one in space.
Yeah….. Arrrrggggghhhh!
-cvj
On the other hand… CFC Substitutes Fix Ozone Hole, but Speed Up Global Warming