Ozone layer 'healing'
Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 9:07 pm
This is good to know. I hope it keeps up, and that they can also make it even better than expected.
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Scientists say they have produced the first conclusive evidence that the ozone layer is being restored to health.
A team of US researchers has found that the rate at which the layer is being destroyed has markedly slowed down.
However they say it will not be completely healed for at least 50 years.
Researchers say the recovery is due to the success of an international ban on damaging chemicals.
Example
The researchers analysed data collected over the last 20 years by three satellites and three instruments based on the ground.
They found that in the upper stratosphere - the topmost slice of the ozone layer - the rate at which ozone is disappearing has slowed down markedly.
We fully expect it to stop declining entirely in the next few years
Professor Michael Newchurch
"It has been declining at about 8% per decade for a couple of decades, and now it's only about 4% per decade," says the scientists who led the research, Professor Michael Newchurch from the University of Alabama.
The recovery is due to the success of one of the first global environmental treaties, the Montreal Protocol.
Established in 1987, it banned the chemicals responsible for ozone damage, notably CFCs, used predominantly in aerosols and refrigerators.
Although the upper reaches of the ozone layer have taken their first steps towards regaining full health, the situation at lower levels is more complex.
Here, global warming is changing temperatures and wind patterns, which is delaying recovery.
Altogether Professor Newchurch's team believes it'll be 50 years at least before the ozone layer is restored to full health.
But they say the success of the Montreal Protocol shows what could be done with other international treaties for other even more serious issues such as climate change.
source
Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1174, old post ID:10294
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Scientists say they have produced the first conclusive evidence that the ozone layer is being restored to health.
A team of US researchers has found that the rate at which the layer is being destroyed has markedly slowed down.
However they say it will not be completely healed for at least 50 years.
Researchers say the recovery is due to the success of an international ban on damaging chemicals.
Example
The researchers analysed data collected over the last 20 years by three satellites and three instruments based on the ground.
They found that in the upper stratosphere - the topmost slice of the ozone layer - the rate at which ozone is disappearing has slowed down markedly.
We fully expect it to stop declining entirely in the next few years
Professor Michael Newchurch
"It has been declining at about 8% per decade for a couple of decades, and now it's only about 4% per decade," says the scientists who led the research, Professor Michael Newchurch from the University of Alabama.
The recovery is due to the success of one of the first global environmental treaties, the Montreal Protocol.
Established in 1987, it banned the chemicals responsible for ozone damage, notably CFCs, used predominantly in aerosols and refrigerators.
Although the upper reaches of the ozone layer have taken their first steps towards regaining full health, the situation at lower levels is more complex.
Here, global warming is changing temperatures and wind patterns, which is delaying recovery.
Altogether Professor Newchurch's team believes it'll be 50 years at least before the ozone layer is restored to full health.
But they say the success of the Montreal Protocol shows what could be done with other international treaties for other even more serious issues such as climate change.
source
Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1174, old post ID:10294
