Closing the ozone hole has been good for global warming too. Now an idea is being proposed to offset global warming by injecting reflective particles into the stratosphere. But this would have a drastic impact on Earth’s protective ozone layer.
A study by Simone Tilmes of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), warns that such an approach might delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole by decades and cause significant ozone loss over the Arctic, and concludes that, over the next few decades, artificial injections of sulfates likely would destroy between about one-fourth to three-fourths of the ozone layer above the Arctic, affecting a large part of the Northern Hemisphere. The sulfates would also delay the expected recovery of the ozone hole over the Antarctic by about 30 to 70 years. However, the impact would be somewhat less because of international agreements that have banned the production of ozone-depleting chemicals.
The earth’s temperature may stabilize naturally and stay the same for the next decade, giving us the chance to fix things the RIGHT way. Will we take advantage of this unexpected opportunity?or squander it?
In BBC News, Richard Black reports that the earth is now entering a natural cooling phase?one that occurs every 60 to 70 years?that will help to offset global warming. However, temperatures will quickly begin to rise again around 2020.
Art credit: gimp-savvy.com
Will we solve one problem only to create another one?one we have only recently solved? Let’s hope we can take some wisdom from the past?before it’s too late!
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