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Remember the hole in the ozone? It's been fixed.

L

Lubricus

Member
This happened in the 1980"s. The ozone, especially around the polar regions, was being depleted. Ozone protects the earth from UVB rays. These wavelengths cause skin cancer, sunburn, and cataracts, which were projected to increase dramatically as a result of thinning ozone, as well as harming plants and animals.
All air conditioners (home and auto), heat pumps, and refrigerator/freezers had to start using a new refrigerant which did not have CFC's and HCFC's.

Thanks to the Montreal Protocol, a 1989 treaty and global effort to eliminate the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), we’ve successfully repaired the Earth’s ozone. This legislative win, according to a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters, had the happy side effect of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and blunting some of the effects of climate change overall.
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In the ’80s, climate scientists realized CFCs and HCFCs – heat-catching chemicals most commonly used as refrigerator coolants – were tearing holes in our planet’s atmosphere. The Montreal Protocol drew upon this evidence to enact laws that would have global repercussions, but it wasn’t until this latest study the rest of us learned about the benefits the United States has since incurred.
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Head researcher and study writer Lei Hu used the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s atmospheric monitoring network to determine that eliminating these pollutants had the same effect as cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 170 million tons each year from 2008 to 2014. Hu and her team further estimated that maintaining the Montreal Protocol could help the U.S. cut an additional 500 million tons of CO2 by 2025 – that’s about a quarter of the emissions we need to cut in order to fulfill the Paris climate agreement, Gizmodo reports.
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...there’s plenty of reason to believe we can move forward with or without the fringe group of climate change deniers. By getting more politically engaged, scientists can influence policy for the betterment of us all. Local politicians can uphold their support of the Paris accord. And as individuals, we can all do our part by spreading facts, not fear. Emboldened by the evidence that cooperative agreements actually work, we can only move forward.
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We will get past Trump and Pruitt (head of EPA). We will be able to do some more work on the problems of climate change. The current administration will be a small speed bump on progress in the world.

https://www.good.is/articles/montreal-protocol-saved-ozone

The study:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL074388/epdf

About the ozone depletion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion
 
30yearsofhurt

30yearsofhurt

Member
It's a cool place and they say it gets colder
You're bundled up now, wait till you get older
But the meteor men beg to differ
Judging by the hole in the satellite picture
Click to expand...

Did Smashmouth lie to us all?
 
K

Koren

Member
I thought the HFC, replacing the CFC and HCFC because of the effect on ozone had a large negative impact on the climate change, and that we replaced an issue with another?

(Another negative is that the new solutions definitely don't last as long as previous ones, so in ecological terms, I wonder...)
 
entremet

entremet

Member
I think we all mean well as a species. We can do great things if we tackle these issues together. That's why I'm generally optimistic about humanity.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
wait.... hideous sunburn under cloudy skies after 10 mins in nz is no longer a thing? i got fucked with that 4 years ago when i visited, how can this be repaired now?
 
A

Aztechnology

Member
Kyzer said:
Great now the liberals have duped us into fixing the planet
Click to expand...

Reference to this?

climate-change.jpg

I love this comic panel so much.
 
S

Shiloa

Member
Who knew. Climate scientists noticed a problem, proposed a solution which involved a change in habits, governments agreed and banned the issue substance, then things got fixed.

I wonder if this is relevant to today at all?
 
L

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
Shiloa said:
Who knew. Climate scientists noticed a problem, proposed a solution which involved a change in habits, governments agreed and banned the issue substance, then things got fixed.

I wonder if this is relevant to today at all?
Click to expand...
Clearly nothing was wrong in the first place and this was all a plot by Big Pharma to hoard CFC to turn all the frogs gay. Oh, and funded by Soros the (((globalist))).
 
S

Spectone

Member
No the article is not about the hole but rather the amount of gases measured in the atmosphere above the US which destroy the ozone layer. It will take much longer for the hole to heal.
 
i_am_ben

i_am_ben

running_here_and_there
Um the Ozone layer has not been fixed. It's still going to take 40+ years to heal based on current projections.
 
D

Dazza

Member
It hasn't been fixed, but it's certainly moving in the right direction.

Wikipedia said:
Recovery is projected to continue over the next century, and the ozone hole is expected to reach pre-1980 levels by around 2075
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I hope we will react faster this time, the scope of change needed and the social and economic impact is a LOT more.
 
H

Hex

Banned
i_am_ben said:
Um the Ozone layer has not been fixed. It's still going to take 40+ years to heal based on current projections.
Click to expand...

And that was if things continued to move in a positive direction.
We have been fortunate.

"Don't worry about it, everything will be fiiiiiine"
Sounds like what all of the kool aid drinkers kept spouting on election night.
 
N

noquarter

Member
That is one thing from my childhood I'm glad to have lost.

Still remember being told about this in school and how using hairsprays and other things contributed to the hole.
 
Z

zeemumu

Member
I hope this doesn't end up like what happens when you find out that you lost a bunch of weight on your diet so you start pigging out because you can.
 
T

ty-tan

Neo Member
While things have been moving in a positive direction, as mentioned by a few others, the ozone layer hasn't been fixed. In fact, there's debate about whether it has yet started to heal.

Here is a good article about the current situation: http://e360.yale.edu/features/thirty-years-after-the-montreal-protocol-solving-the-ozone-problem-remains-elusive

As mentioned in the article, there are certain compounds currently being used called DCMs which may delay the healing process. The DCMs are legal and were previously thought to break down quickly enough that they wouldn't affect the ozone, but recent research is showing that they are actually able to have a negative effect.

Always best to stay vigilant, and never complacent!
 
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