As for cleaning our rivers, I live not too far from a river that actually
caught fire in 1969. It was the Cuyahoga river in Cleveland. I'll bet you
heard about that.
It helped to create the Clean Water Act.
I don't know whether it's perfectly clean yet, but I'm sure it won't catch
fire again.
Evan
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2018 9:44 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Earth’s ozone layer is
healing, UN report says
Yes. A bit of good news, to be taken with a spoonful of caution. Now
if we can clean our rivers, lakes and oceans, clear off the trash that
has been dumped alongside our roads and in random garbage dumps tucked
away in the forests, and save such vital life forms such as the honey
bee, we might actually be around to welcome the healing of the Ozone
Layer in 2060...but don't look for me. In 2060 my eldest daughter
will turn 98, my son 88 and my youngest daughter 86. I sure hope they
will still be living on a friendly planet.
On the off chance that I am still around, I'll turn 125 on April 13,
2060. It could happen...
Carl Jarvis
On 11/5/18, Evan Reese <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Speaking of progress, just heard this today.
Earth’s ozone layer is healing, UN report says
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/earths-ozone-layer-is-healing-un-report-says
Nov 5, 2018 5:08 PM EST
WASHINGTON — Earth’s protective ozone layer is finally healing from damage
caused
by aerosol sprays and coolants, a new United Nations report said.
The ozone layer had been thinning since the late 1970s. Scientist raised the
alarm
and ozone-depleting chemicals were phased out worldwide.
As a result, the upper ozone layer above the Northern Hemisphere should be
completely
repaired in the 2030s and the gaping Antarctic ozone hole should disappear
in the
2060s, according to a scientific assessment released Monday at a conference
in Quito,
Ecuador. The Southern Hemisphere lags a bit and its ozone layer should be
healed
by mid-century.
“If ozone-depleting substances had continued to increase, we would have seen
huge
effects. We stopped that.”
“It’s really good news,” said report co-chairman Paul Newman, chief Earth
scientist
at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “If ozone-depleting substances had
continued
to increase, we would have seen huge effects. We stopped that.”
High in the atmosphere, ozone shields Earth from ultraviolet rays that cause
skin
cancer, crop damage and other problems. Use of man-made chemicals called
chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs), which release chlorine and bromine, began eating away at the ozone.
In 1987,
countries around the world agreed in the Montreal Protocol to phase out CFCs
and
businesses came up with replacements for spray cans and other uses.
At its worst in the late 1990s, about 10 percent of the upper ozone layer
was depleted,
said Newman. Since 2000, it has increased by about 1 to 3 percent per
decade, the
report said.
This year, the ozone hole over the South Pole peaked at nearly 9.6 million
square
miles (24.8 million square kilometers). That’s about 16 percent smaller than
the
biggest hole recorded — 11.4 million square miles (29.6 million square
kilometers)
in 2006.
The hole reaches its peak in September and October and disappears by late
December
until the next Southern Hemisphere spring, Newman said.
The ozone layer starts at about 6 miles (10 kilometers) above Earth and
stretches
for nearly 25 miles (40 kilometers); ozone is a colorless combination of
three oxygen
atoms.
If nothing had been done to stop the thinning, the world would have
destroyed two-thirds
of its ozone layer by 2065, Newman said.
But it’s not a complete success yet, said University of Colorado’s Brian
Toon, who
wasn’t part of the report.
“We are only at a point where recovery may have started,” Toon said,
pointing to
some ozone measurements that haven’t increased yet.
Another problem is that new technology has found an increase in emissions of
a banned
CFC out of East Asia, the report noted.
On its own, the ozone hole has slightly shielded Antarctica from the much
larger
effects of global warming — it has heated up but not as much as it likely
would without
ozone depletion, said Ross Salawitch, a University of Maryland atmospheric
scientist
who co-authored the report.
So a healed ozone layer will worsen man-made climate change there a bit,
Newman said.
Scientists don’t know how much a healed ozone hole will further warm
Antarctica,
but they do know the immediate effects of ozone depletion on the world and
human
health, so “it would be incredibly irresponsible not to do this,” Salawitch
said.
And the replacements now being used to cool cars and refrigerators need to
be replaced
themselves with chemicals that don’t worsen global warming, Newman said. An
amendment
to the Montreal Protocol that goes into effect next year would cut use of
some of
those gases.
“I don’t think we can do a victory lap until 2060,” Newman said. “That will
be for
our grandchildren to do.”
Evan
