International cooperation on ozone-depleting chemicals is helping to return the southern jet stream to a normal state after decades of disruption, a study shows.
Scientists say the findings prove that there is the capacity to heal damaged climate systems if governments act promptly and in coordination to deal with the causes.
The southern jet stream is a powerful wind that shapes weather patterns and ocean currents in the southern hemisphere, particularly in the summer.
Up until about 2000, it had been shifting from its usual course and moving southward at a rate of 1° of latitude each decade, affecting storm tracks and rainfall over South America, east Africa and Australia.
Previous research has shown this was primarily driven by the depletion of the ozone layer by chemical compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons, which are found in fridges, aerosols and other industrial processes.
The chemicals, which were used in vast quantities until they started to be phased out under the UN 1987 Montreal Protocol, thinned the ozone layer, causing a widening “hole” high above the south pole that affected wind patterns.
The paper, published in the journal Nature, shows that the Montreal Protocol has paused the southward movement of the jet stream since the turn of the century and might even be starting to reverse it as the ozone hole begins to close.
In September last year, satellite images showed that the ozone hole annual peak had shrunk to 16.4 million square kilometers, the smallest extent since 1982.
“It’s a success story. This is more evidence that the Montreal Protocol has led to the recovery of the ozone layer,” said the study’s lead author, Antara Banerjee, who works in the chemical sciences division of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is a visiting fellow at the University of Boulder, Colorado.
The expected effect on people will vary from region to region. In Patagonia in southern Chile and Argentina, there should be more rain and less ultraviolet light.
The findings will be of more concern for Uruguay, Paraguay, southern Brazil and northern Argentina, where ozone depletion was previously found to bring more rainfall and wider bands of agricultural production.
Previous studies suggest the reversal might also be good news for Australia, which has had more droughts because the jet stream pushed rain-bearing storms away from its coast during winter.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS