Arctic Ozone Hole Will Be Severe This Year

dirutz writes "Thought this year's weather patterns were odd? Next year's might be worse because of the thinning of the ozone layer. Looks like there's something to add to that list of New Year's resolutions/hopes/dreams."

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doesn't matter

[Madcapjack]

It doesn't matter what scientists say. All the conservative ideologues *know* that scientists are environmentalist whackos.

Earth Speaks To Me

[Shihar]

Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes and world health is and has been dramatically improving. The median world life expectancy goes up every single year. So, unless the earth is a real person that throws out earthquakes just to be a dick, the earth isn't trying to tell us anything. If you want to argue that the climate is changing, go for it, but arguing that earth quakes have anything to do with global warming is just stupid and ignorant.

Re:poor

[Anonymous Coward]

Climate variability is natural. The climate is a complex system which produces unpredictable, and sometimes dramatic, fluctuations from season to season. The so called "severe" changes do not lie outside of the posible range a variablity.

The fact is, we have no idea exactly what impact we are having on the climate, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or uninformed. The only thing we do know with any confidence is that we are having an impact, but what that might be we just don't know.

RTFA!

[Anonymous Coward]

The article does not say that severe weather causes ozone thinning. In fact, it says the opposite: the severe weather increases ozone thinning. The only result of ozone thinning that is mentioned is increased UV rays, and thus an increased risk of skin cancer.

Re:Hmm, this could be a good thing

[NanoGator]

"Maybe after everyone else has died from skin cancer, geeks will inherit the earth. That 'outside' thing was always overrated anyway."

Yeah but until it becomes fashionable for femmes to become geeks, we'll be the last great generation.

Re:Could somebody tell me...

[Yokaze]

It doesn't. Makes one wonder, if Michael isn't maybe hired by the right to post easily disproved myths, which only discredit the green faction as wackos, which will believe in anything.

Maybe one should do that to the right-wingers.

Oh, they are doing it themselves.
Brace yourself for:
"No consent"
"Not provable"
"Global Cooling"
"Little Ice Age"
"Sun fluctuations"
"Earth has been warmer"
"Earth has been cooler"
Corrolar: "We are in an Ice Age"
"We puny humans have no influence in comparison to the might of earth"
"We mighty humans will handle any problem earth will throw at us"

Re:doesn't matter

[fm6]

No, it's the greedy corporate interests that are being taken too seriously! Meanwhile, TRUE science is being swept under the rug in favor of profits and votes.

Re:Umm.. What?

[NockPoint]

What country?

Where I live (Northwest USA), the ski areas are closed down this winter due to lack of snow. Guess what: local weather varies a lot more than global average temperature. Global warming means global, not local. Your backyard will vary a lot, and that variation tells us very little about the global trend.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/snowsports/2 002157838_skiworkers22.html [nwsource.com]

Re:poor

[eraserewind]

How can you possibly claim to be having an impact on something but absolutely no idea what that impact is? Unless you measure something you can't make the first statement, and if you do measure it you can't make the second statement

I thought we gave up CFC...

[jgardn]

Didn't we already give up CFCs and thus saved the ozone layer? What gives? Why is the ozone layer still opening if we gave up using CFCs?

For those of you who don't know, CFCs are an all-around useful chemical. Not only is it completely harmless to human (save asphyxiation), it retards all kinds of fires instantly. The Navy used to use it on all of their ships to put out fires instantly. Guess what? Since it was deployed. hardly anyone got injured due to fire. Nowadays, fires on our Navy vessels are too common.

CFCs are also extremelty useful as a refrigerant. No other chemical has approached CFCs in this realm. All the newcomers are much more expensive to manufacture, and quite dangerous in their own right.

CFCs are also very heavy. They don't float up to the upper atmosphere as some scientists thought. Instead, they stay down here on the surface of the earth where they cause no harm.

Maybe we should re-examine why we got rid of DDT. Did the condor ever come back after we abolished using it? Insect-borne viruses and diseases sure have. Nothing would've saved so many lives from malaria in the tsunami-stricken region like a good dousing of DDT.