Home > Tibet ozone hole alert (aljazeera)
Tibet ozone hole alert
Thursday 04 May 2006 10:02 AM GMT
Chinese scientists have said that a 2.5-million-square-kilometre ozone hole may be forming over the Tibetan plateau.
While it does not yet qualify as a regular ozone hole, like those over the two poles, the area has seen a large drop in ozone density in recent years, the Xinhua news agency said on Thursday, citing China’s Scientific Report journal.
The decrease in ozone over the plateau was caused by atmospheric air movements rather than by the global greenhouse effect, Xinhua quoted the journal as saying.
"When low-ozone air currents in the lower layer enter the upper air layer, the overall ozone density is reduced," the journal said.
Scientists have known about the thinning of the ozone density in the area at least since early this decade, but the report in the journal offers the most solid scientific evidence so far.
The article is based on comprehensive research and analysis of data from ground monitoring and from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, a satellite-borne instrument used to measure global ozone levels.
Chemicals
Without the ozone layer, crops
are in danger of being destroyed
Ozone, which is formed by an electrical discharge in oxygen, exists in a thin layer in the stratosphere where it helps to filter out ultra-violet light from the sun.
It is broken down by chemicals such as those used as refrigerants and aerosol propellants in the last century.
Without the ozone layer, plant and human DNA can be damaged, causing destruction of crops and initiating skin cancer.
The Chinese findings came as a study published on Thursday in the British journal Nature said optimism that the ozone layer may be restored within the next couple of decades was premature.
Recent assessments that suggest that ozone erosion has now permanently stabilised fail to take into account the potential for volcanic eruptions, solar storms and other natural phenomena to distort the picture, the Nature report said.
*Image of ozone hole courtesy of Nasa
AFP
By
You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/432A794C-92C2-48A4-8E3F-422DC693531B.htm
Close
Forum posts
6 May 2006, 04:39
The western world is run by psychopaths who lack the personality development to understand cause and effect. Scientific reasoning is beyond them. This is just one more proof that the world’s in trouble.
6 May 2006, 05:44
Couldn’t agress more - who is voting for those? In cause of a natural catastrophy America has already shown the world through New Orleans that it is not capable to solve such problems.
American dream - or dreaming Americans?
6 May 2006, 08:34
Well, it has always been this way; it appears that a select few of the world are realizing what America really is now.
I could never understand this as I travelled to other countries; all of the people I met wanted to come to the U.S., thinking that they would have more food, shelter and peace. Never would anyone believe me when I told them that they would suffer, that they were better off in their home town, in their birth nation. That where they are they have peace of mind and peace of heart. Many thought, as I learned later, that they thought I had a very good thing and that I wanted to keep them away from it. Only if they knew being born a White in the U.S. means a different reality than for anyone who is not White, and is worse for people born someone place else and having non-White skin.
White Americans are selfish, ignorant and aggressive towards anyone who is different — even other "Americans". The people of New Orleans are a small, small subset of the problems that exist in the U.S. The rest feed off this misrey. Places ad people like those in New Orleans exist all over the U.S.
Those who can afford goods and services feed off the others, it matters not if they are causing harm to the environment or to peoples. Always they will sever themselves. Death of other nations and people only causes glee in the Whites. Time and again history has shown this, and again, I am surprised that many more people do not see this; or in other words only a handful few do.
It is a shame.
10 May 2006, 20:48
Ok Ill direct my weather machine to steer the ozone hole over your house. Wacko
16 May 2006, 12:40
To 24.91: Let’s stop with the bullshit. All you do is sling shit on every issue in this blog site without contributing anything worthwhile what so ever. You don’t read anything, you don’t evaluate data, you don’t do anything to bolster any of your ignorant outlandish opinons, you don’t contribute at all. I don’t consider having to read your fucked up comments as a ’contribution’ either. Fuck off! It’s about time you went back to the blog hole from whence you came, you retarded fascist. Go back to moonbatcentral.com or FreeRepublic, two fascist websites that will welcome an adolescent, socially deprived individual such as yourself with open arms.