For new readers I repeat some of the main points why there is no evidence of any ozone depletion, least of all by man-made, chemicals.
1) The daily variations of the ozone concentration in the ozone layer amount to 25%; so do the north-south variations from the Canadian to the Mexican borders. The average fluctuation smoothed out over a period of several months or years, are the, order of 0.5% per year.
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2) These tiny fluctuations of the smoothed average, fully observable only since the introduction of measurements by satellites, like all fluctuations, go up and down for various reasons, not all of which are known. When they are in the decreasing phase, the Maharishis scream "depletion!"; when they are on the rise, they ignore them. Such cycles, admittedly measured by cruder methods, were observed long before any CFCs such as freon became common
¾as shown in the figure taken from Dr. Sallie Baliunas' excellent booklet (see "Good reading").3) The actual mechanism of the formation and depletion of the ozone layer during the day and night, respectively, is described in [AtE Jul 92]. This is supposedly disturbed by the presence of chlorine, which combines with the ozone, the chlorine allegedly coming from man-made sources (CFC's and other stable compounds), which are broken up by photochemical processes. But the man-made sources are a ridiculously small fraction of the total chlorine injected into the stratosphere naturally, especially by volcanoes and by hurricanes injecting sea spray, where the chlorine of the salt (NaCl) is liberated by solar radiation just like in CFCs.
4) The ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth was decreasing through 1985, when funds ceased to be allocated to the measuring stations.
5) The skin cancer panic is, except for melanoma, a pure scare tactic.
These types of skin cancer have a curability of 99% and are not truly dangerous. On melanoma I have to retrench somewhat from my previous reports. More recent research has shown that when fair-skinned people are subdivided into groups from darkest (Mediterranean) to lightest (Scandinavian), and the history of the patient is taken into account (sunburn in youth, melanoma several decades later), a moderate correlation myth geographical latitude emerges from what seemed to be a case of weak or absent correlation, and that does point to UV exposure. However, it is still true that melanoma can appear on unexposed parts of the body such as soles and buttocks, so that UV radiation is not its only cause (the others are unknown).
6) The "ozone hole" in the Antarctic is not a hole, but a 30% decrease of ozone concentration for 6 weeks around October of every year. Its size and intensity fluctuates from year to year without a discernible growing trend. Though discovered only in the mid-80s, it was probably there in 1993 B.C, too, but the Green maxim is "what you do not know does not exist." In any case, it appears on the opposite side of the globe from where most CFCs are used by the industrial nations.
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Vol. 20, No. 7
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Volume 20 Issue/No.: Vol. 20, No. 7 Date: March 01, 1993 11:11 AM Title: Causality
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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