Ozone Hole at Record Size

[Jcrowley]

Ozone Hole at Record Size
Damaging Chemicals Persist in Atmosphere, Despite Ban on Manufacture
By NED POTTER

Oct. 19, 2006 — The so-called "hole" in the earth's protective ozone layer is at a new record — 10.6 million square miles of sky around the South Pole — even though most nations agreed back in 1987 to phase out the chemicals that cause it.

The number was reported today by U.S. government scientists, who said protecting the ozone layer was still clearly the right thing to do, but that it's taking longer than originally expected for the ozone layer to heal. A 10.6 million mile gap in it is about the size of North America.

"It's going to be like this for the next decade," said Paul A. Newman, a senior research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "And then it will start tipping over, and decreasing, and be gone around 2070."

That's a delay of 15-20 years. Early computer models had shown the ozone layer would be back to normal around 2050.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2586867&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[nam78_two]

1. Yayyy

:sarcasm:
k&r

[kermujin]

2. why isn't this top of the list?!

Why does news like this consistently fall below tittilating reports of Foley's exploits with his 'pedophiliac' 20-year-olds, or other such non-news?

How long will it take for you people to realize that we're *way* beyond Democrat vs. Repub tiffs? The ozone layer doesn't give a hoot about your political affiliations. Nor does the benzene in the drinking water, or the particulates in the air.

Wake up, for the love of god. Step out of your collective cocoon!

[nam78_two]

3. Environmental news never fares that well on DU

And whats sad is, it fares better on DU than pretty much anywhere else ...
Sad ain't it :-/!

I realized this some 10 years ago...now I am numb to it...
I try to do my bit but you can't coerce people into thinking about stuff :-/....
Unless there is a major eco-disaster nothing is gonna change.

[Theduckno2]

5. For too many people thinking is "hard werk". n/t

[hatrack]

9. I heard that!

nt

[nam78_two]

10. Heh most of your posts should make it it to the GP

but often they don't...you know what I am talking about :P.

[Katzenjammer]

8. Exactly! It's madness to worry about partisan crap when Earth

is going to kill us all if we don't get our sh*t together.

[burrowowl]

4. K&R

[vanboggie]

6. Yikes!

Suddenly the Halliburton Happy Camps don't sound like the scariest thing we're facing. :scared:

Might as well eat :donut: drink :beer: and :smoke:

:banghead:

on Edit - jeebus this post looks like the old web sites with the flying unicorns. Sorry! Getting punchy at 3AM.

[Josh]

7. Didnt' we fix the hole in the Ozone layer?

I thought when we phased out CFCs we actually started seeing it close up. I could have sworn Gore said that in an interview or in his movie or something.

[file83]

11. It makes me wonder if some developing/industrial nation (china?) is

not enforcing CFC bans/limits. I could totally see Chinese factories using some process that creates tons of CFC's just so they can satisfy Walmart's cost goals on some stupid product.

[HootieMcBoob]

12. I remember Gore saying that also

I haven't seen his movie but I saw his presentation.

[Josh]

14. You saw it live?

What was that like?

[Jcrowley]

13. How Air Travel Is Imperiling Passengers And The Planet

FREQUENT FRIERS
How Air Travel Is Imperiling Passengers And The Planet

With both poles melting down toward a cataclysmic methane release from thawing tundra and ocean seafloors—and with another 13,500 heavy jetliners scheduled to enter service by 2017, more than doubling the current fleet—a recent British government report calls jet travel a “risk to planet” and urges travelers in the UK and EU to take the train instead.

We’re talking bye-bye civilization within our lifetime. Jet-induced pollutants and cloud cover account for more than 10% of global greenhouse warming. Yet more than five million civil and nearly 2,800 military flights continue each year to “significantly affect” an atmosphere already hammered by outmoded engines and “smokestack” industries belching toxic gasses at ground level.

Jet emissions linger long in the clear, cold, calm of the stratosphere, modifying Earth’s atmosphere about 100-times longer than when released near the ground. Airbus Industries warns that the biggest jet pollutants—nitrogen oxides—are also the most worrisome.

At cruising altitudes high in the stratosphere, these gasses cause 30-times more atmospheric warming than when released near the ground—contributing as much to global warming as all car emissions worldwide! This major pollutant from jet engines also erodes Earth’s tattered ozone shielding, exposing not only plants and animals on the ground to increased solar radiation—but everyone onboard high-flying jets, as well.

<snip>

Because of negligible ozone shielding at altitudes above 35,000 feet, the radiation shower streaming invisibly through fuselages, bones and tissue is hundreds of times more intense than at ground level.

http://www.willthomas.net/Convergence/Weekly/Jet_Pollution.htm

[Megahurtz]

15. We can all thank Corporate Greed for this one.

:grr: