Persistence of the Ozone Hole

Vincent J. Curtis

14 Oct 22

RE: Ozone hole grows this year but still shrinking in general. AP story by  Seth Borenstein.  The Hamilton Spectator 14 Oct 22.

The first triumph of the global environmental movement was the Montreal Protocol, which banned CFCs because they allegedly depleted atmospheric ozone.  Ozone is created by the action of ultraviolet light from the sun on oxygen in the upper atmosphere.  The consumption of UV radiation in the production of ozone means less UV light reached the ground.  This is good, so allegedly an ozone hole must be bad.

The funny thing about the ozone hole over Antarctica is that it occurs only in the southern winter, when the sun isn’t shining on the continent or the atmosphere above it.  Differences in wind circulation patterns over the North and South Poles could explain why the Arctic Ocean does not experience an ozone hole during the northern winter, while Antarctica does.

But these observations were dismissed without explanation, and the environmental crowd simply insisted that CFCs had to be banned because they caused the ozone hole over Antarctica,

All but the fanatics admitted that the science linking CFCs to ozone depletion was weak, and so the “pre-cautionary principle” was invoked to justify banning CFCs.  Well, nearly forty years on we see the ozone hole is still there long after CFCs were banned.  This means that “CFCs cause ozone depletion” is proven false, and the precaution unnecessary.

After their triumph banning CFCs, the environmentalists turned their attention to carbon.

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