Earth's First Arctic Ozone Hole Recorded

[hue]

Source: Live Science

The high atmosphere over the Arctic lost an unprecedented amount of its protective ozone earlier this year, so much that conditions echoed the infamous ozone hole that forms annually over the opposite side of the planet, the Antarctic, scientists say.

"For the first time, sufficient loss occurred to reasonably be described as an Arctic ozone hole," write researchers in an article released Oct. 2 by the journal Nature.

Read more: http://www.livescience.com/16337-arctic-ozone-hole.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Pssshawww. Just more lib facts." - Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh (R)

"Remember all those lib facts about global climate change. We blew those right out of the water with a CrapLoad of BS Republicon Mindf*ck Propaganda lies, right? Well, now we are going to do the same to these facts. There just ain't no PROFIT in the truth for us FatCat Republicons."

- Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh (R)

[ensho]

2. more and more of less and less

nt

[pam4water]

3. I wonder how much of it was caused by the USA and how much by China and India :(

[saras]

4. The first time?

You mean back in the nineties, when the ozone layer was so unhealthy that Canadian radio stations announced the ozone/ultraviolet levels regularly to protect people (this is a sunblock day, this is a 'don't go out unless you have to' day), that there wasn't even a HOLE yet?

Wow.

[The Croquist]

6. Thank you saras

I didn't remember the details but I remember them explaining that the smaller Arctic ozone hole was still a problem.

chlorofluorocarbons have been baned in the developed world for 16 - 23 years. Ask China when they will ban them. I suspect that they will ban them about the time they stop putting poison in dog food.

[defendandprotect]

5. From what I've read, beyond the actual holes, ozone overall hugely damaged -- !!!

[hue]

7. from The Guardian...

"The chemical ozone destruction over the Arctic in early 2011 was, for the first time in the observational record, comparable to that in the Antarctic ozone hole," say the scientists, led by Gloria Manney of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The scientists say man-made chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) destroy ozone in the stratosphere, after sunlight breaks up the complex chemicals into simpler forms that react with ozone. While some of the chemicals are covered by a UN treaty that aims to stop their use, it will be decades before they are fully phased out of production.

Normally, atmospheric conditions high above the Arctic do not trigger a large-scale plunge in ozone levels. But during the 2010/11 winter, a high-altitude wind pattern called the polar vortex was unusually strong, leading to very cold conditions in the stratosphere that also lasted for several months. This created the right conditions for the ozone-destroying forms of chlorine to slash ozone levels over a long period.

The report's authors said there was a risk that the spread of the Arctic hole could become an annual event.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/03/arctic-ozone-layer-hole-expands?newsfeed=true

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, hue.

[hue]

10. your welcome! n/t

[PETRUS]

9. Yeah, but regulations create uncertainty

...and onerous hardship on business. Plus scientists lie to get funding, ya know?

:sarcasm:

Way to go, human race.