Huge Arctic Ozone Hole Leaves Scientists Gaping

The New American ^ | October 4, 2011 | Rebecca Terrell

[Twotone]

The science journal Nature is making headlines this week with news of the largest hole in the ozone layer over the North Pole in history, rivaling the size of its well known Antarctic cousin. Researchers credit this "unprecedented Arctic ozone loss" to "unusually long-lasting cold conditions" in the stratosphere at a time when their colleagues are in turmoil over melting Arctic sea ice a few miles below, supposedly caused by man-made global warming. Of course, humans are also responsible for the chilly stratosphere, they say. With sky-is-falling overtones the article's authors warn, "We cannot at present predict when such severe Arctic ozone depletion may be matched or exceeded."

[null and void]

Ah, I see. So their aim is to have their edicts chiseled in stone, literally.

Yes, using stone chisels.

[Mr. K]

That is a valid point, but you could not just do that for every product. It’s not easy, or everyone would have done it since patents began.

There is nothing else like Freon.

And it made them $billions. That’s the key- the size of the money pot. It takes an awful lot of money to get a worldwide ban on something.

For a drug company it would not be cost effective, and they plan for patents expiring.

There is/was no alternative plan for the Freon patent expiring. There is nothing else as good.

[null and void]

So rather than using their existing already paid for equipment and extensive hard-won experience in manufacturing the stuff to get a smaller slice of the huge pie, it made sense from a business perspective to spend billions of dollars to destroy their own product, buy new equipment and or do extensive and expensive modifications of the existing equipment, relearn how to build a different inferior and NON-PATENTED product and compete on level ground with hundreds of other manufacturers of fluorochemicals?

I got news for you, bud. Everybody plans for when their primary patent expires. It’s not like the expiration is a big surprise.

Look how long Xerox milked xerography. First patent filed October 1937.

Buy your reasoning Xerox should have spent millions spreading the rumor that toner was toxic and left the business in 1954...

[AndrewC]

While being stoned. A Trifecta!