+- IOPList.Org (https://www.ioplist.org)
+-- Forum: Off Topic (https://www.ioplist.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=25)
+--- Forum: World News (https://www.ioplist.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=27)
+--- Thread: Scientists claim ozone layer is healing (/showthread.php?tid=2310)
Scientists claim ozone layer is healing - IceWizard - 07-02-2016
Scientists claim ozone layer is healing More than half the change attributed to ban on CFCs
![[Image: ozone_peak_october_2015.jpg]](http://s2.twnmm.com/images/en_ca/12/Ozone-Hole-Oct2-2015-59099.jpg%5Bimg%5D2000%5Bimg%5Dhttp://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/data/uploads/ozone_peak_october_2015.jpg)
2016
JULY 1, 2016
by: Pilita Clark, Environment Correspondent
Scientists say they have found the first firm signs that the thinning ozone layer over the Antarctic is starting to heal. The ozone hole was more than 4m square kilometres smaller in September last year than what it was in the year 2000, researchers say, an area nearly half the size of the US.
“We can now be confident that the things we’ve done have put the planet on a path to heal,” said Professor Susan Solomon of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lead author of a paper on the findings.
In the 1980s British scientists detected a striking thinning in the fragile ozone layer that filters out ultraviolet solar rays that can hasten skin cancers, cataracts and damage plants.
Some experts had predicted this might happen because of the growing use of synthetic chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), then found in a huge range of products, from hairspray to deodorants and refrigerators.
These chemicals were progressively phased out after countries agreed to limit ozone-depleting substances in the 1987 Montreal Protocol, a measure often described as the world’s most successful environmental treaty.
The study, published in the Science journal, suggests more than half the shrinkage in the ozone hole is due to the reduction in atmospheric chlorine coming from CFCs. This is an indication of what global efforts can achieve, Professor Solomon said in an MIT report on the findings.
“Aren’t we amazing humans, that we did something that created a situation that we decided collectively, as a world, ‘Let’s get rid of these molecules’? We got rid of them, and now we’re seeing the planet respond,” she said.
Prof Solomon’s paper also suggests that although the ozone hole seems to be on a healing path, its recovery may be slowed because of the effects of volcanic eruptions.
The ozone hole in the Antarctic forms and expands during the southern hemisphere spring, between August and September, because of the high levels of chemically active forms of chlorine and bromine in the stratosphere.
It reached a record size in October last year even though atmospheric chlorine continued to decline. The researchers say this seemed to be mainly owing to the eruption of the Calbuco volcano in Chile.
Volcanic sulphate forms tiny particles that are the seeds for polar stratospheric clouds, leading to greater ozone loss. Some scientists say they are still not sure if the shrinking of the ozone hole revealed in the new paper is entirely owing to less chlorine in the stratosphere.
But others think that as chlorine levels continue to decline, the ozone hole may shrink and even close permanently.
“It will close by mid-century if we stay on the course we’re on,” said Dr Ryan Neely of the University of Leeds in the UK, a co- author of the new paper. He said his team’s research was groundbreaking.
“This is the first time we’ve been able to show the ban on chlorofluorocarbons that occurred with the Montreal Protocol has resulted in an actual increase in ozone,” he told the FT.
The ban has had unforeseen side- effects, however. As ozone-depleting substances were phased out, new chemicals known as hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, were developed for use in air conditioners, refrigerators, fire retardants and other products.
Although they do not harm the ozone layer, HFCs are potent greenhouse gases that linger in the atmosphere for many years if released and their use has grown in many countries.
They are the only group of greenhouse gases to have risen since 1990 in the EU, where overall emissions have fallen, according to a report published last week by the European Environment Agency.
RE: Scientists claim ozone layer is healing - Linville - 07-03-2016
maybe mother nature will fix the problem naturally.
What is the old joke about a college grad being interviewed for a job and the question is posed ;
I am going to make this easy for you, how much is 5 plus 5?
College grad says well of course 10.
Then the person asking the questions says while pulling the curtains, and closing the door, I will give you one more chance....
How much is 5 plus 5?
So the grad says, correctly this time, How much do you want it to be.
Bingo you have a job.
What does this mean?
Well maybe something and maybe not.....think about it.
This is important data on an ice core taken just a little over 2000 meters deep. ( A little over 1.2 miles deep)
What the Vostok Ice Core Data Says About Global Warming (and, More Importantly, Cooling)
Quote:[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]The graph of the Vostok ice core data shows that the Ice Age maximums and the warm interglacials occur within a regular cyclic pattern, the graph-line of which is similar to the rhythm of a heartbeat on an electrocardiogram tracing.Read “Earth On the Brink of An Ice Age” in Pravda for the rest.
The Vostok data graph also shows that changes in global CO2 levels lag behind global temperature changes by about eight hundred years. What that indicates is that global temperatures precede or cause global CO2 changes, and not the reverse.
In other words, increasing atmospheric CO2 is not causing global temperature to rise; instead the natural cyclic increase in global temperature is causing global CO2 to rise.
The reason that global CO2 levels rise and fall in response to the global temperature is because cold water is capable of retaining more CO2 than warm water. That is why carbonated beverages loose their carbonation, or CO2, when stored in a warm environment.
We store our carbonated soft drinks, wine, and beer in a cool place to prevent them from loosing their ‘fizz’, which is a feature of their carbonation, or CO2 content. The earth is currently warming as a result of the natural Ice Age cycle, and as the oceans get warmer, they release increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Because the release of CO2 by the warming oceans lags behind the changes in the earth’s temperature, we should expect to see global CO2 levels continue to rise for another eight hundred years after the end of the earth’s current Interglacial warm period.
We should already be eight hundred years into the coming Ice Age before global CO2 levels begin to drop in response to the increased chilling of the world’s oceans.
The Vostok ice core data graph reveals that global CO2 levels regularly rose and fell in a direct response to the natural cycle of Ice Age minimums and maximums during the past four hundred and twenty thousand years. Within that natural cycle, about every 110,000 years global temperatures, followed by global CO2 levels, have peaked at approximately the same levels which they are at today.
About 325,000 years ago, at the peak of a warm interglacial, global temperature and CO2 levels were higher than they are today.
Today we are again at the peak, and near to the end, of a warm interglacial, and the earth is now due to enter the next Ice Age. If we are lucky, we may have a few years to prepare for it.
The Ice Age will return, as it always has, in its regular and natural cycle, with or without any influence from the effects of AGW.
The AGW theory is based on data that is drawn from a ridiculously narrow span of time and it demonstrates a wanton disregard for the ‘big picture’ of long-term climate change.
The data from paleoclimatology, including ice cores, sea sediments, geology, paleobotany and zoology, indicate that we are on the verge of entering another Ice Age, and the data also shows that severe and lasting climate change can occur within only a few years.
While concern over the dubious threat of Anthropogenic Global Warming continues to distract the attention of people throughout the world, the very real threat of the approaching and inevitable Ice Age, which will render large parts of the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, is being foolishly ignored.[/color]
[img=470x0]https://swampie.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/sources-of-greenhouse-gases.gif?w=470&h=227[/img]
Graph from American Thinker: CO2 Fairytales in Global Warming. Read the entire article.
Russian scientists have, for quite some time, been concerned about global cooling rather than global warming
not so fast my friend
a
Ice cores show CO2 increases lag behind temperature rises, disproving the link to global warming
By Catherine Brahic and Michael Le Page
Sometimes a house gets warmer even when the central heating is turned off. Does this prove that its central heating does not work?
Of course not. Perhaps it’s a hot day outside, or the oven’s been left on for hours.
Just as there’s more than one way to heat a house, so there’s more than one way to heat a planet.
Ice cores from Antarctica show that at the end of recent ice ages, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere usually started to rise only after temperatures had begun to climb. There is uncertainty about the timings, partly because the air trapped in the cores is younger than the ice, but it appears the lags might sometimes have been 800 years or more.
Initial warming
This proves that rising CO2 was not the trigger that caused the initial warming at the end of these ice ages – but no climate scientist has ever made this claim. It certainly does not challenge the idea that more CO2 heats the planet.
We know that CO2 is a greenhouse gas because it absorbs and emits certain frequencies of infrared radiation.
Basic physics tells us that gases with this property trap heat radiating from the Earth, that the planet would be a lot colder if this effect was not real and that adding more CO2 to the atmosphere will trap even more heat.
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=738x0]https://d1o50x50snmhul.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/dn11659-2_738.jpg[/img][/color]
What is more, CO2 is just one of several greenhouses gases, and greenhouse gases are just one of many factors affecting the climate.
There is no reason to expect a perfect correlation between CO2 levels and temperature in the past: if there is a big change in another climate “forcing”, the correlation will be obscured.
Orbital variations
So why has Earth regularly switched between ice ages and warmer interglacial periods in the past million years? It has long been thought that this is due to variations in Earth’s orbit, known as Milankovitch cycles.
These change the amount and location of solar energy reaching Earth.
However, the correlation is not perfect and the heating or cooling effect of these orbital variations is small. It has also long been recognised that they cannot fully explain the dramatic temperature switchesbetween ice ages and interglacials.
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=800x0]https://d1o50x50snmhul.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/dn11640-1_800.jpg[/img][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]Temperature and CO2 variations in the Vostok ice cores compared with changes in solar irradiance due to orbital variation
US Global Change Research Program[/color]
So if orbital changes did cause the recent ice ages to come and go, there must also have been some kind of feedback effect that amplified the changes in temperatures they produced. Ice is one contender: as the great ice sheets that covered large areas of the planet during the ice ages melted, less of the Sun’s energy would have been reflected back into space, accelerating the warming. But the melting of ice lags behind the beginning of interglacial periods by far more than the rises in CO2.
Another feedback contender, suggested over a century ago, is CO2. In the past decade, detailed studies of ice cores have shown there is a remarkable correlation between CO2 levels and temperature over the past half million years (see Vostok ice cores show constant CO2 as temperatures fell).
Rising together
It takes about 5000 years for an ice age to end and, after the initial 800 year lag, temperature and CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere rise together for a further 4200 years.
What seems to have happened at the end of the recent ice ages is that some factor – most probably orbital changes – caused a rise in temperature. This led to an increase in CO2, resulting in further warming that caused more CO2 to be released and so on: a positive feedback that amplified a small change in temperature. At some point, the shrinking of the ice sheets further amplified the warming.
Models suggest that rising greenhouse gases, including CO2, explain about 40% of the warming as the ice ages ended. The figure is uncertain because it depends on how the extent of ice coverage changed over time, and there is no way to pin this down precisely.
Biological activity
The source of this extra carbon was the oceans, but why did they release CO2 as the planet began to warm? Many factors played a role and the details are still far from clear.
CO2 is less soluble in warmer water, but its release as a result of warming seawater can explain only part of the increase in CO2. And the reduction in salinity as ice melted would have partly counteracted this effect.
A reduction in biological activity may have played a bigger role. Tropical oceans tend to release CO2, while cooler seas soak up CO2 from the atmosphere as phytoplankton grow and fall to the ocean floor. Changes in factors such as winds, ice cover and salinity would have cut productivity, leading to a rise in CO2.
Runaway prevention
The ice ages show that temperature can determine CO2 as well as CO2 driving temperature. Some sceptics – not scientists – have seized upon this idea and are claiming that the relation is one way, that temperature determines CO2 levels but CO2 levels do not affect temperature.
To repeat, the evidence that CO2 is a greenhouse gas depends mainly on physics, not on the correlation with past temperature, which tells us nothing about cause and effect.
And while the rises in CO2 a few hundred years after the start of interglacials can only be explained by rising temperatures, the full extent of the temperature increases over the following 4000 years can only be explained by the rise in CO2levels.
What is more, further back in past there are examples of warmings triggered by rises in greenhouse gases, such as the Palaeo-Eocene Thermal Maximum 55 millions years ago (see Climate myths: It’s been far warmer in the past, what’s the big deal?).
Finally, if higher temperatures lead to more CO2 and more CO2 leads to higher temperatures, why doesn’t this positive feedback lead to a runaway greenhouse effect?
There are various limiting factors that kick in, the most important being that infrared radiation emitted by Earth increases exponentially with temperature, so as long as some infrared can escape from the atmosphere, at some point heat loss catches up with heat retention.
RE: Scientists claim ozone layer is healing - Linville - 07-04-2016
I am sure pollution from mfg. can effect it as well but as you can tell from my post I do not think it is what is usually talked of.
One time I worked in a production unit that produced the CFL's ( freon used in A/C's) which were banned that used to be in Right Guard under arm deodorant among other uses, and the EPA would have had a heart attack if they saw how we got a make stream dryer ready for regeneration.
Vented it down to the air, ugh....hundreds of pounds
So that was not a good thing to do, at all.....and I am a firm believer in something called "BAT" , or Best Available Technology...in modern production
But this product was banned.
Who knows converting this may be contributing to the healing of the hole in the atmosphere ....changing what we use and implementing BAT.
...but it is also used to make big money and the people that get in the media and talk of it but fly their friends half way around the world to hear a speach are flat wrong to do that and then ask us to become less carbon footprint....
Sorry for the rant......I guess since I am in the field I get pulled into it, maybe too much.
I saw the other day that Carrier Air Conditioning Company is shutting down their world class MFG. plant in Indianapolis, Indiana, to move it to Mexico, loosing 1400 good jobs...for that city.
Because of Gov. regulation.
Sighs
I am all for LED light bulbs and not CFL's.
Sometimes this creates another set of problems...not considered.
Cities changing to LED's from incandescent bulbs saw that the lack of heat from the old style bulbs would not melt the ice and snow in winter time, so had to put thinking cap on to solve that problem...but I think it is worth it.
I think the city of Albany NY is changing to all LED saving ten's of thousands of dollars , so that is a good thing .
**
This goes from just bad to worse depending if it is private or not..
What planet are you on, Leo?
DiCaprio flies his LA friends 6,000 miles around the world so they can listen to his speech on GLOBAL WARMING
When Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio hosts a reception for a string of A-list stars, supermodels and wealthy philanthropists later this month, he will make an impassioned plea for more action to be taken on global warming.
But instead of holding the event in Los Angeles, where most of his guests are based, they will fly halfway around the world to the glitzy French resort of St Tropez – at enormous cost to the environment.
Last night, green campaigners were quick to criticise 41-year-old DiCaprio, who in February used his Best Actor acceptance speech at the Oscars to warn about the dangers posed by climate change.
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=306x0]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/07/03/00/35E46EE300000578-3671903-Leonardo_DiCaprio-a-111_1467503668492.jpg[/img]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=306x0]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/07/03/00/35E46EDA00000578-3671903-Kelly_Rohrbach_and_Kate_Hudson_attend_a_cocktail_reception_durin-m-110_1467503654017.jpg[/img][/color]
Leonardo DiCaprio (left) is clearly passionate about global warming. Last year Kelly Rohrbach (left) and Kate Hudson (right) were among those invited to the foundation's gala in the south of France[/color]
The reception – the grand-sounding Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Annual Gala To Fund Climate and Biodiversity Projects – will be held on July 20 at the Bertaud Belieu Vineyards on the French Riviera.
Celebrities including Kate Hudson, Charlize Theron, Cate Blanchett, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Robert De Niro, Scarlett Johansson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kevin Spacey are all expected to attend, along with a host of international rock and pop stars, supermodels and tycoons.
And while a table seating 12 people at the gala costs up to £125,000, the real price will be paid by the environment.
If just one guest among the 500 invitees chooses to fly the 12,000-mile round trip from LA to St Tropez by private jet – a notoriously environmentally unfriendly way to travel – they will produce 86 tons of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas.
Even those who use a scheduled flight will be responsible for releasing seven tons of CO2 – leading green campaigners to ask why the event could not have been held in Hollywood or in St Tropez during May’s Cannes Film Festival, when many of the guests would have been there anyway.
Robert Rapier, an environmental analyst, said: ‘DiCaprio demonstrates why our consumption of fossil fuels continues to grow. It’s because everyone loves the combination of cost and convenience they offer.
'He believes that no sacrifice is necessary; just Government policies that can provide him with a solar-powered yacht or jet, or that give individuals low-cost renewable energy on a broad scale.’
[img=634x0]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/07/03/00/35E46EAA00000578-3671903-image-a-112_1467503756027.jpg[/img]
Experts say if the guests travel by scheduled flight they will produce seven tons of carbon dioxide per person, while if they travel by private jet it would be nearer 86 tons
One guest who attended last year’s gala said: ‘It’s basically a big party for Leo and his showbusiness friends and models. The models, of course, do not pay for tickets, and neither do the VIP guests – they get to have a nice big free party.’
The Mail on Sunday has learned that guests opting for the Grand Earth Protector Package – ‘prime dinner seating for 12 guests’ at a table near to DiCaprio – costs £125,000.
The more frugal Earth Protector Package – seating 12 at a slightly more distant table – costs £82,000, while those content with social Siberia can choose the Ocean Steward Package, at a mere £58,000 for 12 diners.
The Titanic star – whose love of private jets is well known – has long been dogged by accusations that he fails to practise the carbon footprint-aware lifestyle he preaches.
In May, he flew by private jet to New York from France, where he had been attending the Cannes Film Festival, to receive a ‘green’ award – before flying back the following day.
The 8,000-mile round-trip churned 55 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. In the previous five months, he travelled more than 91,000 miles by plane during 18 separate trips.
Where private jets are used, the carbon dioxide emitted goes up hugely – between seven and 20 times, depending on the plane.
It is estimated DiCaprio has potentially emitted up to 418 tons of CO2 this year alone because of his globe-trotting. In contrast, the average American produces just 19 tons on flights each year.
DiCaprio's ex-girlfriend at St. Tropez gala in 2014
[img=634x0]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/07/03/00/35E46EAE00000578-3671903-image-a-113_1467503965121.jpg[/img]
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation gala was first held in 2014 (pictured) at Domaine Bertaud Belieu in St Tropez and has become an annual event
In 2014, emails hacked from film studio Sony revealed the actor took six private flights in just six weeks, costing £138,000, though a friend insists most of his journeys were commercial.
DiCaprio – who sits on the boards of two eco-pressure groups – has previously made much of his support for environmental causes, with his foundation recently pledging more than £10 million to green projects at this year’s World Economic Forum.
In 2008 he made his own environmental documentary, The 11th Hour, which inconveniently tanked at the box office.
A source close to DiCaprio said last night that he would be flying to St Tropez on a commercial airline and not a private jet.