No surprise that the government lied to us again. The Daily Mail reports that the "Ozone Hole has been 'remarkably massive' over the past four years: Scientists warn gap over Antarctica is larger and deeper than ever - and say CFCs aren't the only things to blame." From the article:
It was almost 36 years ago that experts agreed to ban the production of a damaging class of man-made chemicals, known as CFCs.
At the time, research had shown that CFCs depleted the ozone layer, the protective layer of our atmosphere that shields us from cancer-causing UV rays.
But this might not be enough, as the ozone hole has been 'remarkably massive' over the last four years, scientists in New Zealand now reveal.
Heh. I'm old enough to remember the debate and even when the ban was still under consideration there were voices in opposition that argued that the ozone hole issue was due to volcanic activity, not people using their cans of hairspray and air conditioners; and that, besides, the CFC molecules were too heavy to find their way from your bathroom or car to the upper edge of the atmosphere. But just as with global warming, there were too many environmental groups making too much money off the scaremongering. And so we got stuck with crappy pump hairspray bottles and lousy A/C coolants. The result?
The experts analysed the monthly and daily ozone changes, at different altitudes and latitudes within the ozone hole, from 2004 to 2022.
They found that there is much less ozone in the centre of the ozone hole compared to 19 years ago, despite the crackdown on CFC production that began in the 1980s.
As of September, the ozone hole was 10.3 million square miles (26 million square km), experts at recently revealed – but they were unsure why it was so big.
A UN report earlier in the year claimed the ozone layer could be mended by 2040 due to the CFC ban, but recent measurements of the hole have cast doubt over the matter.
The authors of this new study claim there's been a 26 per cent loss in the core of the ozone hole in the past 19 years – but again, they're not sure why.
The experts compared measurements of the ozone hole made since 2004 during the month of October.
October is the southern hemisphere's spring, and is usually when the hole reaches its maximum size.
'The hole has been amongst the largest on record over the past three years,' said study author Hannah Kessenich at the University of Otago.
'Our analysis ended with data from 2022, but as of today the 2023 ozone hole has already surpassed the size of the three years prior.
I wonder if had anything to do with the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption on January 15, 2022, a huge volcanic eruption (the largest of the 21st Century so far) comparable in power to the Krakatoa eruption in the 1800s? Nah, that's just crazy talk.
The Atlantic runs a yearly "The Year In Volcanic Activity" that says in both the 2019 and 2020 editions that "[o]ut of an estimated 1,500 active volcanoes, about 50 erupt every year". Thus, it is notable that, per the Smithsonian Institute, 2016 had 86 eruptions from 75 volcanoes; 2017 saw 74 eruptions from 71 volcanoes; 2018 gave us 80 eruptions from 75 volcanoes; 2019 saw 75 eruptions from 73 volcanoes, including the White Island eruption in New Zealand that killed 22; 2020 had 74 eruptions from 69 volcanoes; 2021 had 83 eruptions from 77 volcanoes; and 2022 saw 85 eruptions from 80 different volcanoes. Conversely, if you jump back to 1986, there were 75 eruptions from 67 different volcanoes; in 1987, there were 64 eruptions from 62 volcanoes; in 1988, there were 64 eruptions from 62 volcanoes; in 1989, there were 57 eruptions from 55 volcanoes; in 1990, there were 60 eruptions from 56 volcanoes; in 1991, there were 67 eruptions from 65 volcanoes; and in 1992, there were 61 eruptions from 57 volcanoes. Obviously this does take into account the size of the eruption or the amount of gases or other materials thrown up in the atmosphere, but just looking at the numbers there has been a significant uptick in volcanic activity from when CFCs were banned and the recent several years.
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