Why isn't it in the news anymore..
2007-07-09 02:59:27 · 13 answers · asked by slim 5 in Environment ➔ Global Warming
ok, they banned the crap that they thought were causing it but only in the US... they also said that once the stuff was banned and NO ONE was using it anymore it would take 100 years to start showing improvement. I agree with the first answer... Its now over Al's energy sucking house
2007-07-09 03:08:58 · update #1
To the person from Australia, Sorry but I don't think the ozone hole was over that country. It's hot here in Florida too but it is every year.
2007-07-09 05:24:06 · update #2
It actually shifted, it's now over Al Gore's mansion instead of Antarctica or wherever it used to be.
2007-07-09 03:03:33 · answer #1 · answered by Cubs39 4 · 4⤊ 3⤋
As several people have stated, the hole in the ozone layer still exists, but is a problem that we essentially solved back in the 1980s.
Back then scientists realized that the hole was a big problem, and was caused by clorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Government leaders (including Ronald Reagan) decided that it was time to take action, and held a meeting in Montreal in which they agreed to the Montreal Protocol. This phased out the use of CFCs in the countries which participated in the meeting, and they stopped producing them in 1996.
The result is that the hole in the ozone layer is still growing, but much more slowly. It's growing because the lifetime of ozone in the atmosphere is 50-100 years, and some developing countries which didn't participate in the Montreal Protocol still use them. However, the problem was essentially solved by this international agreement.
The analogous situation to global warming was of course the Kyoto Protocol. The differences are that Kyoto wouldn't have solved a problem - it just advocated a 5% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2012 which was just a very small first step toward a solution, but we couldn't even agree to that, as the US and Australia refused to ratify it. It's also much more difficult to reduce GHG emissions than CFC emissions, because we're so dependent upon fossil fuels.
2007-07-09 12:49:19 · answer #2 · answered by Dana1981 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The Ozone hole problem is an example of a ecological crisis that has been averted through international cooperation. The manufacture of CFCs has stopped almost everywhere in the world, except for a few "pirate" operations. As a result, the Ozone hole has very nearly returned to its naturally-occurring size, instead of getting bigger each year. This is, in fact, reported in the news, but being "good" news, you have to dig a bit.
2007-07-09 10:49:24 · answer #3 · answered by cosmo 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The reason it's not so bad anymore is an International treaty called the Montreal Protocol that phased out the use of chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs) worldwide, except for a few critical applications. It wasn't just the US.
The hole is still there, but the rate at which is was increasing has slowed down. Scientists expect it to start shrinking soon, but that it will take many years to get back to normal.
It hasn't gone away, and it will take many more years for that to happen, but the problem is being solved and it's just not "news" anymore.
Much more information available here:
http://www.theozonehole.com/
"Perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol."
2007-07-09 10:18:24 · answer #4 · answered by Bob 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The banning of CFC's helped make the hole smaller.
To the person that thinks the EPA is a waste of money.
I work for a hazardous waste disposal company and I can tell you that you do not want any of the chemicals we deal with in your backyard. We don't dress up in head to toe protective gear with a 20 pound respirator strapped to our back in 90+ degree heat because we think it's fun. Or enjoy the thought of getting blown up, chemical burned or getting cancer if we don't do our job right.
Why do you think Lake Eerie caught on fire in 1969? Because the fish had learned how to create fire?
Maybe a 55 gallon barrell of perchlorate, MMH or hydroflouric acid sitting in your living room will change your mind.
2007-07-09 14:26:38 · answer #5 · answered by Muppet 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yeesh, you American's...
Just because something wasn't on FOX news doesn't mean that it no longer exists. Tell you what, we still know about it down here in Australia where UV ratings are so high that you can get a sunburn in 10 minutes. Even on cloudy days we tend to get UV ratings right up in the high range and most of summer is rated extreme UV danger.
Also it wasn't just the US that banned CFCs, people (despite skeptics and deniers) finally shifted from using them with far less evidence than we have that man made climate change is going to be a problem.
*edit* Check your facts. The biggest hole (and the one they refer to as THE hole in the ozone layer) in the ozone layer is over the Antarctic, Australia is not very far from it and has a reduced ozone layer. The north pole only ever experienced a much more minor, spring time 'pothole' but the south pole got the worst of it... global ozone levels are down by about 5 percent in the middle lattitudes but here in South Australia and in New Zealand it's been measured at about 10 percent lower than before we started using all those ozone depleting chemicals and at times the Antartic ozone layer hole has been seen to extend over parts of Australia and New Zealand. Incidentally this correlates with a great increase in skin cancer in Australia and New Zealand in the time period over which the Antartic ozone layer formed so in all likelihood it's caused at least a few thousand deaths. Ozone depletion hasn't been scientificly proved to have caused them with studies but the increased UVB levels is none the less a very likely factor in them. It's reckoned that it will take to about 2060-2075 before the ozone layer should be back at about pre-1980's levels.
That is unless of course a cooling statrosphere (as standard models of climate change predict) increases the rate of ozone depletion (it's naturally formed and destroyed but temperature in the upper atmosphere affects the rate of decomposition - that's why the size and shape of the hole shifts seasonally btw) - the very gains that we got rid of CFCs for may be lost because of our foolish refusal to act on the issue of climate change.
2007-07-09 10:52:27 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
The hole in the ozone is still there--its not getting worse, though you're right, its going to be decades before it recovers. In other words, nothig new-and in this case, that's good news!
BTW--you might want to drop the cracks about Al Gores house. The neocons that posted that false story didn't bother to get the actual numbers on what Gore's house used to consume--which were far lower.
And irrelevant--he converted to solar energy. The right-wingers didn't bother to mention that--but then, when did they ever let the truth influence their propaganda?
2007-07-09 11:51:36 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Still exists.
Just like fools still exist on the Yahoo Answers. But it doesn't always make the news.
The issue of CFCs wasn't US specific but was addressed via the Montreal Protocol back in 1987.
It applied to many nations not just the US.
But you anti-GW and anti-science folks will belittle any evidence because this doesn't apply to those who will not think for themselves.
Is that you?
2007-07-09 11:12:23 · answer #8 · answered by kenny J 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I'm not so sure about this. Sounds kinda fishy. People bring up topics in the media for other purposes than just the safety of the environment. The last time the ozone layer was a topic in the media, I wander what else was going on that "they" didn't want you to hear about. Maybe some sort of war that no one could agree about? I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but the media dictates what we think is going on. Is there really even a whole in it?? How do we know for sure whats really going on? I've never seen it, have you??
2007-07-09 10:11:13 · answer #9 · answered by RU11 2 · 2⤊ 3⤋
Good question. Isn't it convenient how the media just forgets all the crap they reported on as facts that was just another theory that didn't prove to be facts? I thought the Ozone hole was caused by CFC's and was going to kill us all. I don't live in the US where they banned CFC's. Did the US only banning it close the hole? We are supposed to be freezing now??
2007-07-09 10:20:29 · answer #10 · answered by GABY 7 · 1⤊ 4⤋
They banned the chemicals that were causing the damage (CFCs, like Freon) quite a few years ago.
2007-07-09 10:03:43 · answer #11 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋