Post by MCDemuth on May 22, 2018 2:04:36 GMT
There's No Good Explanation for Why Ozone-Ripping CFCs Are Back
May 21, 2018 06:20pm ET
A blockbuster study published in the journal Nature yesterday (May 16) revealed that for the first time since the 1980s, ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have ticked sharply upward in the atmosphere — suggesting a new source. Here's the thing though: Not only do scientists have no idea what that new source is, it doesn't make much sense that someone would decide to pump out CFCs again. That's because there are numerous, inexpensive alternatives to CFCs that work just as well.
As The Washington Post explained in its detailed report on the study, global CFC production has been near zero since the materials were banned in the 1987 Montreal Protocol. Overall, atmospheric CFCs are still declining, and the ozone layer is still replenishing itself. But the new source has slowed that process significantly, and scientists find the situation completely baffling, said John L. Ferry, an environmental chemist at the University of South Carolina.
That leaves the bizarre possibility that someone is actively manufacturing and using CFC-11 again...
"Why would someone set up a factory to do just this when we know the consequences for that are negative? It seems crazy," Ferry said.
For the moment, though, the situation is deeply mysterious.
www.space.com/40655-new-cfcs-enter-ozone-layer.html
I'm not going to speculate, as to why this is happening... because I would probably come up with some fringe theory or conspiracy explanation... that would probably just get laughed at...
But, whatever the source for this is, it needs to be discovered, and stopped as soon as possible.
