Ozone depleted by record amount over Arctic: UN
Montreal Gazette, 5 April 2011
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Arctic+ozone+depleted+record+amount/4562173/story.html
The legacy of the ozone-destroying chemicals, such as those that once filled aerosol sprays and refrigerators, continues to be felt in the Arctic, where the ozone has been depleted this spring like never before.
The World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday that the Arctic experienced an "ozone column loss" of about 40 per cent from the beginning of the winter to late March.
The highest ozone loss previously on record was about 30 per cent over the entire winter.
Ozone forms an atmospheric shield that protects the Earth from ultraviolet rays.
"The Arctic stratosphere continues to be vulnerable to ozone destruction caused by ozone-depleting substances linked to human activities," said Michel Jarraud, Secretary General of the UN agency, in a statement.
"The 2011 ozone loss shows that we have to remain vigilant and keep a close eye on the situation in the Arctic in the coming years."
The depletion comes despite what the UN weather organization calls "very successful" international efforts to reduce the amount of chemicals in the air that can destroy the ozone layer — following a high-profile campaign by environmental activists in the 1980s.
The UN organization called the record ozone depletion over the Arctic the environmental hangover of the chemical pollution that was long pumped into the atmosphere.
Ozone-depleting substances, such as chlorofluorocarbons and halons, which were once used in refrigerators, spray cans and fire extinguishers, stay in the atmosphere for decades.
"It will take several decades before their concentrations are back down to pre-1980 levels," the weather organization said in a statement.
It gathered its latest assessment through ground-level observation as well as from balloons and satellites over the Arctic.
Weather conditions vary widely in the Arctic from year to year, and that has an effect on how much ozone depletion is seen annually.
Some Arctic winters experience almost no ozone loss, while cold stratospheric temperatures can result in substantial ozone loss, the agency said.
Even though this past Arctic winter was warmer than average at ground level, it was colder in the stratosphere than for a normal Arctic winter.
The stratosphere is the second major layer of the atmosphere, above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. It starts at about 10 kilometres in altitude and reaches up to an altitude of about 50 kilometres.
About 90 per cent of the ozone in the atmosphere is found in the stratosphere. That ozone is commonly referred to as the ozone layer. It absorbs ultraviolet light and protects life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed in 1987, in a bid to reduce ozone levels to pre-1980 levels. It has since been revised several times, and has been ratified by nearly 200 countries.
The accord helped phase out ozone-depleting substances — such as chlorofluorocarbons and halons.
The World Meteorological Organization said that, thanks to the accord, the ozone layer in the Arctic is expected to recover around 2025-2035.
General Environment News
House Dem: Change title of EPA-blocking bill to 'Koch Brothers Appreciation Act'
The Hill, 5 April 2011, Andrew Restuccia
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/153921-house-dem-change-title-of-epa-blocking-bill-to-koch-brothers-appreciation-act
Rep. Gerry Connollly (D-Va.) wants to change the title of a bill to permanently block Environmental Protection Agency climate regulations to the “Koch Brothers Appreciation Act.”
Connolly has submitted to the House Rules Committee a series of amendments that would change the title of the bill to everything from the "Middle Eastern Economic Development and Assistance Act” to the "Head in the Sand Act."
Others include the "Protecting Americans from Polar Bears Act” and the "Oil Producing Economy Capitulation Act.”
The amendments are last-ditch effort by Connolly to criticize Republicans ahead of the upcoming floor debate Wednesday on the legislation, which was authored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.).
The bill is expected to easily pass the House, but Connolly’s amendments signal that Democrats plan to go down swinging.
The House Rules Committee will meet later this afternoon to determine which amendments will get a vote on the floor Wednesday.
The committee has posted 40 amendments to the bill on its website. Most of the amendments are from Democrats.You can see the amendments here.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, submitted an amendment calling on Congress to accept a finding by the EPA that “climate change is occur- ring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.”
He offered a similar amendment during committee consideration of the bill.
But there are a handful of amendments from Republicans. For example, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kans.) submitted amendments to ensure that the EPA doesn’t regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the National Environmental Policy Act or the Clean Water Act.
Teaching theology in public schools, and other ‘scientific controversies’
Washington Post, 4 April 2011, David Waters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/teaching-theology-in-public-schools-and-other-scientific-controversies/2011/04/04/AFQrrIdC_blog.html
Having failed to turn Muslims into felons, the holy warriors in the Tennessee legislature now are trying to turn science teachers into Sunday school teachers.
A bill that would “allow” science teachers to teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution, climate change and other “scientific controversies” sailed through requisite House committees and has been placed on a similar fast track in the Senate.
Science teachers and scientists see this sort of “strength and weaknesses” legislation for what it is:
A back-door attempt, under the guise of “academic freedom,” to encourage public schools to teach Creationism and Intelligent Design in science classes.
Good morning, class. Today, we’ll look at a commentary on the ”weaknesses” of evolution and other secular humanist theories. Please turn in your text books to Genesis, Chapter 1.
In a devilish twist, supporters of the bill are enlisting the memory of John Scopes himself, the Tennessee science teacher tried for teaching evolution in the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925.
“Today’s evolutionary scientists have become the modern-day equivalents of those who tried to silence Rhea County schoolteacher John Scopes for teaching evolution in 1925, by limiting even an objective discussion of the scientific strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory,” David Fowler, head of the Family Action Council of Tennessee and chief lobbyist behind the legislation, wrote recently in an op-ed in the Chattanoogan.
Employing Scopes to defend a bill that encourages science teachers to teach theology instead of science is like using the apple that fell on Newton’s head to explain the apple that triggered “the Fall” in the Garden of Eden.
As journalist Lauri Lebo has reported, the bill’s official sponsor, state Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville), got the bill from Fowler’s Family Action Council of Tennessee, an organization associated with James Dobson’s conservative Christian Focus on the Family.
Fowler told Lebo that he drafted the bill based on sample legislation from the Discovery Institute, which promotes Intelligent Design.
Earlier this year, two other Tennessee legislators sponsored a bill that would have made it a felony to practice Islam. They didn’t write the bill; they got it from the conservative advocacy group, Tennessee Eagle Forum. (Sanity prevailed and the legislobbyists revised the ”anti-terrorist” bill and removed all references to Islam and
shariah.)
Do state legislators ever write their own bills? Should we just cut the middlemen and allow lobbyists to submit their own legislation?
Am I being naive? Are we all being naive?
As Sarah Palin once said, “Science should be taught in science class.”
Creationism isn’t science.
Or as The Tennessean explained in a recent editorial, the language used by whoever wrote the science class bill “is cover for their real intent: to require teachers to concoct a phony debate over evolution, global warming and cloning as being matters of scientific controversy when they are only politically controversial.”
Now there’s a subject worth studying in high school.
Good morning, class. Today we’re going to examine the strengths and weaknesses of political controversies such as Creationism, school prayer, the war on Christmas, foreign-born Muslim presidents and so forth. Please turn on your TV.
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