Ozone Hole to Mend (Itself) by 2040-Japanese University Scientists

The Australian ^ | May 29, 2002 Australia Time | Stephen Lunn

[RadioAstronomer]

Hey! I have more hair than that!!!!!!!

[Kay Soze]

Thank you!

[Carry_Okie]

You are quite welcome.

[Quila]

The greens have to be planning some serious damage control right now. This might eat into their political influence and profit margins.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

That Freon(CFC's) are to blame for the ozone hole over Antartica is erroneous. Freon, dichlorodifluoromethane (CCl₂F₂)is heavier than air and decomposes into hydrochloric acid, hydrofloric acid, and CO₂ when exposed to water vapor and ultraviolet light. The Freon demonizers would have you believe that this heavier than air gas, floats it's way in to the stratosphere 6 to 30 miles up, decomposes and the chlorine then bonds with the ozone destroying it, and thus our protection from the damaging ultraviolet light.

Ozone O₃ is created from Oxygen O₂ and ultraviolet light. In absence of the ultraviolet, Ozone will reform into Oxygen in approximately 30 minutes.

The main sources of ultraviolet light in nature are sunlight and lightning.

Antartica, the southern pole is in darkness while the Earth tilts the Northern Hemisphere 23º towards the sun in our summer. Hence there is a seasonal aspect to the Ozone content over the Southpole , and to a lesser extent the Northpole(during our winter).

The major source of variable Ozone depletion at the Southpole is Mount Erebus. Located on Ross Island, Erebus is classified as a continually erupting volcano, it spews gigatons of superheated Chlorine, Bromine, Florine and Sulfur gas per year into the atmosphere. The Erebus summit is just slightly over 10,000 feet above sea level. This combined with the wind vortices in Antartica(200+MPH Catabalic winds) easily pumps the superheated Chlorine, Bromine, Florine, and Sulfur gases into the Antartic Stratosphere, binding with the Oxygen, and thus reducing the Ozone content.

The output of Erebus in HF and HCL alone was an average of 6 gigatons per year from 1976 to 1985, and 13.3 gigatons per year from 1986-1991. More recently Erebus has began to spew ash, bombs, and lava. Cumulatively from 1976 to 1991 that is over 116 gigatons of HF and HCL from a source local to the effect, yet we are to believe that man is to blame. Right.

Here's a few pictures of Mount Erebus and it's nearly constant flume.

Live Video cam link It's mostly dark there now, but there are picture archives and movies of past eruptions.

[nightdriver]

"CFCs are efficient at eating away the ozone layer."

Actually, this has never been proved. Just having people say it's so doesn't make it so.

[PatrickHenry]

The science doesn't matter. It never did. Gore, Hillary, etc. will continue to lie about things -- with the cooperation of the media -- and hope to ride to power on the votes of a deliberately dumbed-down population. Antarctica never made any difference.

[MeekOneGOP]

Gee, if ALL these scientists in the world could get off the ghost far* problems
and work on REAL problems, maybe they could achieve something worthwhile?

[MeekOneGOP]

fyi..........

[backhoe]

The output of Erebus in HF and HCL alone was an average of 6 gigatons per year from 1976 to 1985, and 13.3 gigatons per year from 1986-1991.

I greatly appreciate your posting this info- I was a foot soldier in the "Freon Wars" of the 1990's- used to be an HVAC mechanic- and none of my old info is before me, but I recall volcanoes as being the great producer of halides.... not CFC's.

DuPont's patent on Freon ran out in 1996 ( I think! ) and they did their best to contribute to turning it into a "controlled substance." I have a little web based info on this here:

Scams, Scalawags, and an all-too-gullible Public...famous frauds sold to America

Excerpts:

The Freon Wars ( how a nearly-inert, benificent gas became Devil Vapor )

-Puron and Freon 12 are the Biggest Scams to Hit the American Public Since--

-Freon superstitions--

-Behind the Freon Frenzy--

-Freon Refrigerators from the late 1800s until 1929 used the toxic gases, ammonia (NH3), methyl chloride (CH3Cl), and sulfur dioxide (SO2),--

-Freon Replacements vs 134a - a highly opinionated look Hydrocarbon Refrigerant Hotline ...--

-Arrest that freon--

[FreedomPoster]

Nice set of Freon / ozone links. I was professional mechanical engineer in private practice, ASHRAE member, all that, until a career shift about 6 years ago. To sum it all up: Freon causes ozone depletion like guns cause crime.

The banning of CFC's has come at great societal cost. We took a huge step backwards in energy efficiency of air conditioning / refrigeration equipment as a result of the transition to the new refrigerants. Thank you, enviralmentalist whackos. < /sarcasm>

I still have a *big* tub of R-22 for my home systems.

[backhoe]

Affrimative. I worked on HVAC systems from age 17 up, but since I don't have the "gov'mint issue piece of paper" I am subject to a $10,000 fine if I touch them nowadays.

People forget Icehouses were always located at th edge of town for a good reason in pre-Freon days- leaks of ammonia or the other common refrigerant gases were poisonous! Unless you overheat it ( phosgene! ) Freon is one of the most inert substances you will find.

[ex-Texan]

I will believe the ozone hole will mend itself when it comes to pass. Until that time, this is just more Japanese computer modeling type games. By the way, where is Godzilla when you need him ?

[maxwell]

if ALL these scientists in the world could get off the ghost far* problems and work on REAL problems, maybe they could achieve something worthwhile?

Bwahaha... You got THAT right, bro... Well back to the geek conference from hell... Last I knew, folks were having heart attacks because we ran out of stick pins to pin their research posters up with... You know where I'D like to stick some pins...

[PeaceBeWithYou]

That info on Erebus is hard to find, they hide it well, but if you know the University, New Mexico Tech in this case, doing the studies you can find it. Either on their sites or by doing some google searches and wading thru the cached data.

Here's some more facts for you warriors: At the height of man's CFC production the total per year was 1.2 million tons. Less than 500 million tons were produced over the years of production 1930-2000. The Oceans of the world produce 600 million tons of Clorine per year, this is not even equal to man's total CFC production.

Here's a challenge for you diggers:
Back in 1994 there was a bill in the House to investigate this fraud(HR-291, IIRC). I can't find a trace of it.

Most of the Freon demonizers claim that the lighter than air superheated gases (reactive halides) spewing out of volcanos combine with water vapor and fall back to the ground within 7 days, yet that Freon(an inert halocarbon) which is 6 times heavier than air at sea level, floats magically to the Stratosphere over the Southpole(against 200MPH+ winds) where it decomposes into HF and HCL and reacts with Ozone. The claim is that one atom of Clorine can destroy upto 10,000 Ozone molecules, but this too has never been proven.

Also, coincidentally(of course) to the ban, Dupont's international patent on Freon expired at the same time the ban went into effect.

If volcanos released CFC's the only ozone hole over the Southpole would be due to the lack of sunlight during the winter.

[backhoe]

Thanks for the further information- I really believe the 1990's are going to be recalled as "The Decade of Frauds..."

[MeekOneGOP]

I give up Max. Where wouldja stick 'em??? LOL!

[Maelstrom]

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/Ozone/depletion.html

Seems to indicate that although CFC's can other chlorine sources cannot rise that high.

I don't think CFC's are to blame, but let's keep looking with stuff that hasn't been refuted.

[aShepard]

Great article by Fred Singer at #10. Thanks!

[Looking for Diogenes]

In the 1980s, emissions of CFCs added chlorine at the rate of 1 Mton per year to the atmosphere. This resulted in an increase of 0.3 Mton per year in the stratosphere. High-end estimates of the amount of chlorine spewed into the atmosphere by a major volcanic eruption ranged from 0.1 to 1 Mton. Eruptions such as El Chicon in 1982 and Pinatubo in 1991 were sufficiently powerful for their plume to reach 25 km, well into the ozone layer. However, the amount of chlorine added to the stratosphere by El Chicon was only 0.04 Mton, and the amount added by Pinatubo was even less. These amounts were much lower than the high-end estimates because the volcanic plume contains 1000 times as much water vapor as it does HCl. The HCl readily dissolves in water and rains out within a few days.

Mt. Erebus, an antarctic volcano, was identified by some early researchers as playing a role in creating the ozone hole. During its most active period, the late 1970s and early 1980s, it contributed about 0.06 Mton of chlorine per year to the atmosphere. In 1991, this figure was only 0.013 Mton. The plume of Mt. Erebus reaches about 0.5 km above the volcano, which is at a height of 3794 m. Even though the tropopause is very low and weak (if it exists at all during the antarctic winter) it is unlikely that much of the chlorine from the plume reaches the stratosphere.

The general conclusion is that volcanically-produced sulfate aerosols have a destructive effect on ozone, but that volcanically-produced chlorine is of minor importance.
Wheeling Jesuit University