 In
1985 scientists and evironmentalists announced the discovery of a
"hole" in the ozone layer. They
claimed that the hole was caused by man-made chemicals called chloroflourocarbons
(CFCs). CFCs are things like refrigerants, called freons, and the
gases in fire extinguishers. They claimed that unless something drastic
was done immediately, there would be a world-wide depletion of the
ozone layer, causing major increases in the amount of UV radiation
in the earth's atmosphere and possibly millions of human deaths.
In
respone to their complaints, many of the world leaders signed the
Montreal-London Protocol, which stated that all CFC production would
cease by the year 2002 (2010 for Third World countries). The only
problem with the Montreal-London Protocol, besides that it was created
on the emotions of hysteria, faulty science, and hasty concusions,
was that there isn't a good chemical replacement for CFCs. Proposed
replacements were toxic, expensive and flammable, and the cost for
converting them could reach as much as $5 trillion worldwide, which
many countries may not be able to afford.
Environmentalist
say that the supposed threat of ozone depletion was worth the cost
of outlawing CFCs, but what they didn't say leaves much doubt on
the truth of the whole contrversy.
What
wasn't said...
The
"ozone hole" is actually a thinning of the ozone layer
rather than a hole and appears to be a natural phenomenon.
The
"hole" was actually discovered in 1956
by Dr. Gordon Dobson, before widespread
use of CFCs came into affect. Dobson concluded that the "hole"
usually appeared near the end of winter, then vanished after three
to five weeks, before the onslaught of spring.
The
"hole" is confined to Antartica and is caused by an Antartic
high-altitude weather phenomenon called the Polar Vortex.
The
worst case ozone-depletion scenerios of the environmentalists are
insignificant compared to the daily variations due to weather,
solar activity, and latitude.
The
amount of chlorine-containing compounds released
naturally into the earth's atmosphere far exceeds the amount
released by man-kind.
What
Is Ozone?
UV
Rays
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