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I finally remembered that I wanted to see what the explanation for there being no hole in the ozone later over the arctic when nearly all of the CFC emissions are in the Northern hemisphere.
It's because the polar vortex in the antarctic is stable compared to the same weather structure in the arctic.
What hit me in the explanation is the reason for the hole appears to be a "wall" of weather that keeps atmosphere from the outside from mingling with the inside and this, combined with colder temperatures than up North, allows the ozone to be depleted inside the vortex.
The cold also explains why this catalytic reaction doesn't run rampant across the rest of the planet.
You need chlorine and bromine radicals attached to sub-freezing ice crystals in an isolating environment for it to destroy ozone.
Since this vortex is cyclical, the "wall" dissipates and fresh ozone from the outside can flow in.
What this also means is this was never a world-wide threat to ozone. It's a local phenomenon.
It was a test of how gullible the world is. And the world failed, spectacularly.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading back during the peak insanity of this that it was all started by "Big Freon" (no, they didn't use that term) to get rid of the cheaper stuff and move to the more profitable versions to sell.
DeleteAnother "conspiracy theory"? To borrow the term the CIA invented.
Then there's the whole Shuttle Foam conspiracy, in which a much more expensive but less useful version of Freon was used in the foam on the exterior tank, which the new foam was less strong, more heavy and far more expensive.
DeleteI remember Angela Crabtree (back when we were going out together and she was Angela Rolling---IOW, when she was happy) saying something like that.
ReplyDelete