Limbaugh lies to his listeners about the ozone hole.

[Jim__]

Limbaugh was on a tear today claiming that the scientific evidence about CFCs causing the ozone hole has been refuted. The basis for his claim is a finding (not yet completely verified) by a german scientist that one of the crucial chemical reactions happens an order of magnitude more slowly than previously thought:

This neat story of the scientific identification of a man-made cause for stratospheric ozone depletion followed by a successful international response to the threat is now being challenged by some very recent research. [e-mail] (sub required) is reporting a new analysis by Markus Rex, an atmosphere scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam, Germany, which finds that the data for the break-down rate of a crucial molecule, dichlorine peroxide (Cl2O2) is almost an order of magnitude lower than the currently accepted rate.

- more....

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What Limbaugh didn't tell his listeners is that no one doubts that the cause of the ozone hole is CFCs, it's just that they may not have the chemistry completely right:

"Until recently everything looked like it fitted nicely," agrees Neil Harris, an atmosphere scientist who heads the European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit at the University of Cambridge, UK. "Now suddenly it's like a plank has been pulled out of a bridge." ...

Nothing currently suggests that the role of CFCs must be called into question, Rex stresses. "Overwhelming evidence still suggests that anthropogenic emissions of CFCs and halons are the reason for the ozone loss. But we would be on much firmer ground if we could write down the correct chemical reactions."

[rusty quoin]

1. What would his motive be for this?

The only things I can think of that produces CFC's are hair spray, spray paint, ect.

[Ilsa]

2. I thought CFCs had been removed from aerosols. I guess I was wrong. nt

[Hand]

4. No, you're right.

Currently, one of the worst offenders among ozone-depleting chemicals is methyl bromide (bromomethane), a widely used soil sterilant and fumigant that's used (among other things) to eliminate insects, rats, etc., from export goods. It's been banned under the Montreal Protocols and is being phased out of usage, but big agricultural interests, as well as Chinese exporters, have pressed (successfully) for "special use" exemptions... needless to say, with the wholehearted support of the Chimpy administration. In my opinion, their ultimate goal is to scrap the Montreal Protocols altogether, but I doubt that's going to happen.

Limpballs, of course, is just doing his masters' work.

[unpossibles]

6. to show how environmentalists and scientists have been wrong before n/t

[Uncle Joe]

7. Please see post 3, I meant to address it to your post. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

3. Al Gore's recent Clinton Global Initiative speech, where he gave credit to Reagan

for eventually coming around on this issue. I believe Limbaugh sees this speech as a threat to the Republican base.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/633d030a-6c5d-11dc-a0cf-0000779fd2ac.html

Gore calls for ‘global Marshall plan’

By Daniel Pimlott in New York

Published: September 26 2007 19:37 | Last updated: September 26 2007 19:37

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, on Wednesday called for a “Marshall plan” to make job creation and measures to address climate change compatible and urged President George W. Bush to commit to mandatory cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.

“This is an emergency,” Mr Gore told the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative. “I think that the key to fighting global poverty is to have the wealthy nations and the developing nations join together to reduce global warming … I think what we need is a global Marshall plan to make the creation of jobs around the reduction of carbon the central principle for how we develop this.”

Mr Gore said Mr Bush should follow the example of former US president Ronald Reagan, who after an initial delay responded to the 1985 discovery of a hole in the ozone layer by supporting a marked reduction in chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs.

“We have to have a binding reduction on carbon,’’ he said.

<snip>

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Limbaugh lies to his listeners about the ozone hole.

That's cuz it fried his brains...

[MrCoffee]

8. Limbaugh lies.