International, Politics, Science, Society

Report: Ozone Layer Shows Signs Of Recovery

earth-screensaver_largeYes, 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:

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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

142 thoughts on “Report: Ozone Layer Shows Signs Of Recovery”

  6. Throwback Monday Hiding the decline

    Phil,
    Here are some speculations on correcting SSTs to partly
    explain the 1940s warming blip.
    If you look at the attached plot you will see that the
    land also shows the 1940s blip (as I’m sure you know).
    So, if we could reduce the ocean blip by, say, 0.15 degC,
    then this would be significant for the global mean — but
    we’d still have to explain the land blip.
    I’ve chosen 0.15 here deliberately. This still leaves an
    ocean blip, and i think one needs to have some form of
    ocean blip to explain the land blip (via either some common
    forcing, or ocean forcing land, or vice versa, or all of
    these). When you look at other blips, the land blips are
    1.5 to 2 times (roughly) the ocean blips — higher sensitivity
    plus thermal inertia effects. My 0.15 adjustment leaves things
    consistent with this, so you can see where I am coming from.
    Removing ENSO does not affect this.
    It would be good to remove at least part of the 1940s blip,
    but we are still left with “why the blip”.

  7. Rut Ro 97% of Climate Scientist Agree Antarctica is melting and it’s all Michael Manns fault.

    Scientists say the extent of Antarctic sea ice cover is at its highest level since records began.

    Satellite imagery reveals an area of about 20 million square kilometres covered by sea ice around the Antarctic continent.

    Jan Lieser from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) said the discovery was made two days ago.

    “This is an area covered by sea ice which we’ve never seen from space before,” he said.

    “Thirty-five years ago the first satellites went up which were reliably telling us what area, two dimensional area, of sea ice was covered and we’ve never seen that before, that much area.

    “That is roughly double the size of the Antarctic continent and about three times the size of Australia.”

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-14/record-coverage-of-antarctic-sea-ice/5742668

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/5742632-3×2-700×467.png

  9. http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-climate-change-faith-and-fact/

    “The latest in a string of dire reports on climate change came this week from the United Nations’ meteorological advisory body, which said that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2013, due to a “surge” in carbon dioxide, prompting fears of an accelerated warming of the planet.

    A majority of Americans think global warming is real and that human activity’s a factor, believing in the science behind reports on climate change. But some two-thirds of white evangelical Christians aren’t convinced.

    In the face of those who use religion to deny the worldwide crisis of climate change, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, an evangelical Christian, believes that her faith is compatible with science. This week she speaks to Bill about ending the gridlock between politics, science and faith in order to find solutions to the widespread threats associated with global warming.

    “…The New Testament talks about how faith is the evidence of things not seen,” says Hayhoe, who was recently named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. “By definition, science is the evidence of things that are seen, that can be observed, that are quantifiable. And so that’s why I see faith and science as two sides of the same coin.””

  10. I’ll offer up some good advice for this upcoming winter which looks to be a brutal one. If you are a believer in the Global Warming scam and get cold always go to the corner of any room. Will serve purpose two fold. One as punishment for falling for the scam and two to keep warm as the corner will always be 90 degrees 🙂

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