Antarctic ozone hole nears record: U.N. agency

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 9/22/06 | Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

GENEVA (Reuters) - The hole over Antarctica's ozone layer is bigger than last year and is nearing the record 29-million-square-km (11-million-sq-mile) hole seen in 2000, the World Meteorological Organization said on Friday.

Geir Braathen, the United Nations weather agency's top ozone expert, said ozone depletion had a late onset in this year's southern hemisphere winter, when low temperatures normally trigger chemical reactions that break down the atmospheric layer that filters dangerous solar radiation.

"The ozone depletion started quite late, but when it started it came quite rapidly," Braathen told journalists in Geneva.

"It (the hole) has now risen to a level that has passed last year's, and is very close to, if not equal to, the ozone hole size of 2003, and also approaching the size of 2000," he said.

The Antarctic ozone hole was at its second-largest in 2003.

While use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) has waned, Braathen said large amounts of chlorine and bromine remain in the atmosphere and would keep causing large reductions in the Antarctic ozone layer for many years to come.

"We will for the next couple of decades expect to see recurring ozone holes of the size that we see now," he said.

The WMO and the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) said in August that the protective layer would likely return to pre-1980 levels by 2049 over much of Europe, North America, Asia, Australasia, Latin America and Africa.

In Antarctica, the agencies said ozone layer recovery would likely be delayed until 2065.

[NormsRevenge]

A computer model illustrates the largest ozone layer hole ever seen over Antartica, on September 6, 2000, in this undated file photo. The present hole is bigger than last year and is nearing the record 29-million-square-km (11-million-sq-mile) hole seen in 2000, the World Meteorological Organization said on Friday. (Ho/Reuters)

[NormsRevenge]

Meanwhile , in NYC..

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (C) speaks with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore (L) and Richard Branson, who pledged of all profits from Virgin's Group's airline and rail businesses, an estimated $3 billion over the next 10 years, on combating global warming, during a news conference at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 21, 2006. Clinton's annual event brings together world leaders from business, government and philanthropy to try to solve world issues. REUTERS/Chip East (UNITED STATES)

[NormsRevenge]

View of the Ozone layer shot by European Space Agency (ESA) satellite ERS-2. The seasonal ozone hole over Antarctica is reaching a record size previously seen in 2000 and 2003, the World Meteorological Organisation has said.(AFP)

[NormsRevenge]

FRom AFP oh yahoo

Antarctic ozone hole close to 2000 and 2003 records

GENEVA (AFP) - The seasonal ozone hole over Antarctica is reaching a record size previously seen in 2000 and 2003, the World Meteorological Organisation has said.

"Our latest bulletin shows that the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic has beaten that of last year and is rivalling the two largest on record -- 2000 was the largest and 2003 was the second largest," said WMO spokesman Mark Oliver.

The hole in the protective layer of gas in the earth's upper atmosphere, which is caused by a specific type of pollution, emerged late in the season and grew faster than expected due to climatic conditions, said WMO ozone expert Dr Geir Braathen.

A graph supplied by the WMO indicated that the hole centred over the South Pole -- which is currently well above 27 million square kilometres (10.5 million square miles) in area -- was still forecast to expand in size this month.

In 2003 it reached about 28 million square kilometres.

Ozone, a molecule of oxygen, filters out dangerous ultraviolet rays from the Sun that damage vegetation and can cause skin cancer and cataracts.

The layer has been increasingly damaged by man-made chemicals, especially chlorine and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), according to scientists.

The chemical reaction that thins ozone reaches its peak with colder high altitude temperatures in the southern hemisphere winter, normally in late August to October.

CFCs include aerosol gases and refrigerants whose use was belatedly controlled by an international treaty, the Montreal Protocol signed on September 16, 1987.

Braathens reiterated recent findings showing that the seasonal depletion of ozone in the upper atmosphere was expected to continue for longer than expected despite the control measures.

"Although ozone depleting substances are on the way down slowly... we will in the next couple of decades expect to see ozone holes of the size we are seeing now," he said.

Braathens explained that an area from an altitude of 14 to 21 kilometres (8.7 miles to 13 miles) above the earth's surface was already saturated with enough of the chemicals to a have a durable effect.

[bmwcyle]

Does everyone who works on the ice down there die early in life do to exposure?

[stm]

The Adelie and Emporer penguins better start using SPF 4000 sunscreen.

[mazda77]

Did anyone ever notice that it is the ozone hole (more properly described as a thinning of the layer) at the South pole in our (northern hemisphere) summer and then it gets thin at the North pole during our winters?

The most crucial element of producing ozone is sunshine. Think about what part of the world has little of this at certain times of the year that coincide in the detection of the thinning.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The current spacecraft has been monitoring this since July 2004. So there's plenty of data. /sarcasm

[icwhatudo]

It (the hole) has now risen to a level that has passed last year's, and is very close to, if not equal to, the ozone hole size of 2003, and also approaching the size of 2000," he said.

Ummmmm, so in other words its getting smaller?

2006 is smaller than 2003 which is smaller than 2000.

Am I missing something?

[patriot_wes]

"Now those things will be pouring in over the edge Gilmer!.. you know those thingys with the yellow and pink triangle pieces.....they'll be raining down everywhere....."

[3niner]

I guess that "2006 ozone hole smaller than in 2003, which was smaller than in 2000" wouldn't have made a good headline.

[RightWhale]

That yellow area is where the ozone went. It merely moved.

[Outland]

"The most crucial element of producing ozone is sunshine. Think about what part of the world has little of this at certain times of the year that coincide in the detection of the thinning."

Quiet!  You're ruining the conspiracy!

[Outland]

The Ozone hole is shrinking... growing... shrinking.. growing...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-makower/something-good-for-a-chan_b_6529.html
08.31.2005 - Something Good for a Change: The Ozone Hole Is Shrinking

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1485373.htm
October 19, 2005 - Shrinking ozone hole 'proves pacts work' - Scientists say the depletion of the ozone layer above Antarctica seems to have peaked...

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Ozone-Hole-Now-Stable--Say-Scientists/story.xhtml?story_id=123006W9IVRL
August 23, 2006 - Ozone Hole Now Stable, Say Scientists - Twenty years after it was first discovered, the hole in the ozone layer has stabilized and may be shrinking.

http://www.greenconsumerguide.com/index.php?news=840
October 2002 - Ozone hole shrinking – Nasa - Tests on the ozone layer by Nasa have confirmed recent reports that the hole appears to be closing.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/12/19/Worldandnation/Ozone_hole_recedes_Ch.shtml
December 19, 2004 - Ozone hole recedes - The worst of the ozone hole has pulled back once more to Antarctica this southern spring...

More proof that these "scientists" don't understand diddly, yet they know for certain that ozone hole and climate change are your fault.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

CFCs were created as a solution to another environmental chemical problem:

"Refrigerators in the late 1800s and early 1900s used the toxic gases, ammonia (NH3), methyl chloride (CH3Cl), and sulfur dioxide (SO2), as refrigerants. After a series of fatal accidents in the 1920s when methyl chloride leaked out of refrigerators, a search for a less toxic replacement begun as a collaborative effort of three American corporations- Frigidaire, General Motors, and Du Pont. CFCs were first synthesized in 1928 by Thomas Midgley, Jr. of General Motors, as safer chemicals for refrigerators used in large commercial appilications1. Frigidaire was issued the first patent, number 1,886,339, for the formula for CFCs on December 31, 1928. In 1930, General Motors and Du Pont formed the Kinetic Chemical Company to produce Freon (a Du Pont tradename for CFCs) in large quantities. By 1935 Frigidaire and its competitors had sold 8 million new refrigerators in the United States using Freon-12 (CFC-12) made by the Kinetic Chemical Company and those companies that were licensed to manufacture this compound. In 1932 the Carrier Engineering Corporation used Freon-11 (CFC-11) in the worldís first self-contained home air-conditioning unit, called the "Atmospheric Cabinet".; Because of the CFC safety record for nontoxicity, Freon became the preferred coolant in large air-conditioning systems. Public health codes in many American cities were revised to designate Freon as the only coolant that could be used in public buildings. After World War II, CFCs were used as propellants for bug sprays, paints, hair conditioners, and other health care products. During the late 1950s and early 1960s the CFCs made possible an inexpensive solution to the desire for air conditioning in many automobiles, homes, and office buildings. Later, the growth in CFC use took off worldwide with peak, annual sales of about a billion dollars (U.S.) and more than one million metric tons of CFCs produced."

[Uri’el-2012]

Ozone, a molecule of oxygen, filters out dangerous ultraviolet rays
from the Sun that damage vegetation and can cause skin cancer and cataracts.

The layer has been increasingly damaged by man-made chemicals,
especially chlorine and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), according to scientists.

The chemical reaction that thins ozone reaches its peak with colder
high altitude temperatures in the southern hemisphere winter, normally in late August to October.

CFCs include aerosol gases and refrigerants whose use was belatedly
controlled by an international treaty, the Montreal Protocol signed on September 16, 1987.

Braathens reiterated recent findings showing that the seasonal depletion of ozone
in the upper atmosphere was expected to continue for longer than expected despite the control measures.

"Although ozone depleting substances are on the way down slowly...
we will in the next couple of decades expect to see ozone holes of the size we are seeing now," he said.

Braathens explained that an area from an altitude of 14 to 21 kilometres (8.7 miles to 13 miles)
above the earth's surface was already saturated with enough of the chemicals to a have a durable effect.

This is all bulls**t

The ozone hole is not created by man and his chemicals.

It will not be controlled by the Montreal treaty.

That is more Marxist/Anarchist Propaganda to seize power by any means.

The Ozone hole is created and maintained by Mount Erebus, Antarctica an active volcano.

[Howlin]

Yikes........my apologies for the HUGE graphic!

[Bommer]

So can someone explain to me how the only place on earth that has no polluting industry whatsoever is the only place that theres a hole in the atmosphere? If anywhere there should be a hole its over LA! Maybe its the pollution that patching the other holes we don't know about. SAVE THE OZONE! POLLUTE MORE!!