The eventual recovery of the gaping ozone hole over Antarctica, first discovered two decades ago, may take years longer than previously predicted, scientists reported on Tuesday.
Researchers suspect that's because of all the older model refrigerators and car air-conditioning systems in the US and Canada that are still releasing ozone-killing chemicals. Both countries curbed those chemicals in newer products.
If scientists are right, that means longer-term exposure to harmful ultraviolet radiation, which raises the risk of skin cancer and cataracts for people. Long-term UV exposure is bad for the biodiversity of the planet too.
Since the discovery of the ozone hole over the South Pole in the 1980s, satellites and ground stations have been monitoring it. Current computer models suggest the ozone hole should recover globally by 2040 or 2050, but Tuesday's analysis suggests the hole won't heal until about 2065.
Meanwhile, the lesser-damaged ozone layer over the Arctic is expected to recover by about 2040, according to new modeling done by John Austin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Results were presented at an American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
"From a human perspective, it's a little dismaying because this means there's still going to be higher levels of UV," said Paul Newman, an atmospheric scientist with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Measurements of ozone depletion vary every year, making it hard for scientists to predict the long-term effects of changes and how it may affect recovery.
The size of this year's Antarctic ozone hole rivaled the all-time biggest hole detected in 2003. In September, the hole over the South Pole peaked at about 25.9 million km2, or the size of North America. That was just below the 2003 record size of about 28.5 million km2.
Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, in refrigerants, aerosol sprays and solvents have been largely blamed for most ozone depletion.
Experts generally agree that the man-made chemicals are leveling off since more than 180 countries in the 1980s signed the Montreal Protocol, which phases out some CFCs and other compounds such as chlorine and bromine. As a result, chlorine has declined in the lower atmosphere since the mid-1990s, while bromine growth has slowed.
But new research suggests that chlorine and bromine are not being depleted as fast as expected. In 2003, the ozone-depleting chemicals in the US and Canada made up about 15 percent of total global emissions even though the two nations have stopped producing the chemicals.
It takes decades for these chemicals to dissipate and that may delay ozone hole recovery, said Dale Hurst, a research associate at the NOAA Global Monitoring Division.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS