Yes, we actually have some good news to report about the environment. The United Nations has issued a report with NASA photos showing that the giant hole in Earth’s ozone layer is shrinking. The ozone layer protects us from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays and was being destroyed by the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Over vehement objections from industry that curtailing CFCs would destroy the economy, new laws forced the use of substitutes and the result has been predictable and encouraging.
Industry fought to stop the ban on CFCs for decades even though scientists linked CFCs to the ozone depletion in the 1970s. In 1987, the world reached a phase out agreement as part of the Montreal Protocol. Industry and various politicians denounced the agreement as a disaster for the economy and jobs. Instead, it quickly forced the creation of alternatives, which are now in wide use.
Here is the result:
It is not done however. It will take until 2050 for the ozone layer in the mid-latitudes to return to relatively healthy 1980s conditions. Around the Antarctic, where the ozone layer is the most damaged, it will take until 2075. However, humans actually made a sacrifice and produced a beneficial result for their planet. Now that is worth celebrating.
Source: Washington Post
actually human’s did not make a sacrifice. Thay just mandated a hydro flouro carbon refigerant that had a substitute which was basically energy nuetral. . Giving up energy with no acceptable alternative is sacrifice . And what the global climate chane folks want us to pay for. I am glad the hole is growing back….but there were many refigerants and propellents which didnlt destroy ozone .just like the are plenty of energies that donlt disrupt climate. Like most all of them!
note to self… john is whacko nutcase…
About what time do these psychobabbling, environmentalist wackjob, neo-communist, collectivize-or-die taxpayer parasites discover that they have cried wolf for so long the climate is actually getting cooler?
They actually changed their slogan from “global warming” to “climate change” to reflect science and public attitudes, hoping to enhance recruitment.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
The climate has been changing since the formation of the earth.
The climate will change until the disarticulation of the earth.
Snake oil salesmen will separate fools from their money until such time.
Whinny, squeaky wheels will get the grease ad infinitum.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
“…you can’t just shoot ’em.”
Men 1991
Forester Sisters
http://youtu.be/8c2KAi3H_kc
More bad news. As this Bloomberg article says, “Three months of rain and mild weather created almost ideal growing conditions, and the USDA forecast yields at all-time highs for both crops [soybeans and corn].”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-11/corn-declines-to-four-year-low-as-usda-sees-bigger-crop.html
The freakishly perfect weather has caused a surplus in grains and pushed corn prices down to 4 year lows. Consumers will have to endure a slightly better standard of living created by cheaper – or at least stable – food prices. Their lack of suffering can not be a good thing for the Global Warming® industry, which relies on apocalyptic and frightening predictions. A few years ago Ted Turner predicted we’d all be cannibals by mid-century due to Global Warming®. Maybe we can postpone having to eat each other for a year or two thanks to this great harvest created by the “almost ideal” growing conditions.
groty – Ted Turner can make predictions like that because he will be dead by then.
Now you know why the Founders gave us a restricted vote republic “if we can keep it.”
Mass hysteria is an extremely compelling force.
Applying criteria to the right to vote mitigates the hysteria.
Since the fall of communism, the collectivists have needed a new rallying cry.
Repetition of the phrase “the sky is falling” is productive for recruitment.
Drink the Kool-Aid, folks. Drink the Kool-Aid.
Yeah!
It can take over a decade for CFCs to reach the ozone layer, so there was a delayed effect in seeing the extent of the damage, as well as seeing a recovery.
Steve H – darn it, I was drinking water when I read your post!
The sky is falling. The sky is falling.
Oops!
It is in retrospect hard to fathom why we used such things to begin with. The world was fine for billions of years without them.
The good news is that we can use those aerosols again.
“The ozone hole opened the world’s eyes to the global effects of human activity on the atmosphere. It turned out that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—long-lived chemicals that had been used in refrigerators and aerosols sprays since the 1930s—had a dark side. In the layer of the atmosphere closest to Earth (the troposphere), CFCs circulated for decades without degrading or reacting with other chemicals. When they reached the stratosphere, however, their behavior changed. In the upper stratosphere (beyond the protection of the ozone layer), ultraviolet light caused CFCs to break apart, releasing chlorine, a very reactive atom that repeatedly catalyzes ozone destruction.” – NASA
Not all eyes or minds are open to reality -they still think that cow farts are the source of our atmospheric problems.
I wonder if it the environment got any better in the DFW area. In prior years, many summer days were red ozone alert days. Saw there were more fracking related earthquakes yesterday. Oh well, the state cares more about fighting the EPA than providing a healthy environment for its citizens.
Interesting that Ozone depletion was the first partial lie that got a bunch of ‘we can’t possibly affect the air, sea and weather of this planet’. Extremism messes it up for everyone, whether Muslim, Christian, the Silly Party or the StupidAH Party. Yes, they showed Ozone hole figures in the Spring, much larger coz Ozone needs sunlight, zero in Winter. There was truth there but lies too. But the real truth eventually came out and the world could live without hairspray. Thanks for blogging this.
A good start. Shows that something can be done about.it. Now flurocarbons, then the rest of it. If Spineli likes Steve’s comment its clearly too much tongue in cheek as Nick is a raving climate change denyer.
Steve H, There are some don’t won’t even understand your great parody. Kudos.
The problem with climate change is that any serious attempt to address it would decrease the use of fossil fuels and therefore depress the value of fossil fuel deposits owned by the oligarchs who matter.
Bravo.
The key issues to take note of here are:
–Man is screwing up the environment
–Man can undo the effects
–What stands in the way is the status quo or oligarchical government
–In reality change makes money, new industries, alternatives to damaging elements, alternatives to fossil fuels, etc
–The oligarchs that run things do not represent the best interests of all but only of a percent or two of the people
–Ignorance and complacency are their greatest allies
The galaxy has a way of righting its wrongs created by humans. This is self evident by the major burn off centuries ago.
That’s good news. Does anyone have any thoughts on how this can be used to advance the conversation on global warming? Doesn’t this prove that the scientists are right? And shouldn’t governments around the world, especially ours, take the same successful approach to global warming: ban the use of oil? If oil were outlawed, then industry would immediately focus all its efforts on the mass production of the electric car, solar panels, and fuel cells. And we’d reverse global warming. Now, it wouldn’t be easy since Halliburton, the Koch Brothers, Fox News and the oil barons who control our politics, our economy, and our society won’t allow it (since all they want is money and control, the slime.) But if we all whine and complain and whimper long and hard on social media, especially this blog, then we can feel better about ourselves. Meanwhile, I’ll fluctuate between rage and despair. Oops, I forgot to blame Bush, too. All of them.