Ozone Depletion

"The ozone hole is a HOAX!!" -- Rush Limbaugh. [picture of ozone hole]
For some reason, there are still many people who feel that way.   If the Usenet newsgroups are any indication, it seems that 99% of them have utterly no idea what is going on with ozone, but they all seem to loudly parrot Limbaugh & Co's objections, some of them rather sophisticated.. Is this a coincidence? Defending their dogma, true dittohead parrots and their anti-environmentalist ilk will never make it to these ozone pages.   That is the nature of dogma. Yet they will raise many questions in others, many of them legitimate and logical questions that have already been asked by science.

I highly recommend Robert Parson's Ozone Depletion FAQ as a good place to start.   In fact, it is comprehensive, and most people will need not seek any further information, it really does provide a good basic conservative education in ozone depletion.   It is fully referenced.   =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The FAQ provides answers about such questions as:
What is ozone?
Is the ozone layer really only 3 millimeters thick?
What is the stratosphere?
What are CFCs?
If Freon and CFCs are heavier than air, how does it reach the stratosphere?
Don't volcanos or ocean spray have a far greater effect than man made CFCs?
After CFC's are photolyzed, what happens? What about seasonal variation?
What about sunspot variation?
Does ozone depletion affect populated areas?
How do CFC's destroy ozone?
How can we tell that is happening?
What else is contributing to the destruction, and how much?
How long have we been watching the ozone layer?
How does increased UV radiation affect crops?
How does increased UV radiation affect sea life?
How does increased UV radiation affect amphibians?
How does increased UV radiation affect people?
How much increased UV radiation is there in America/Europe?
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For those who are convinced there is a global conspiracy of science (to seek funding?), I would suggest reading up on the gun-slinger mentality of starving PhD's trying to make a name for themselves (peer review).   The chapter on scientific method and the philosophy of truth-seeking in any good intro to science textbook (such as Biology or Geology) will do.   Science is designed to be operated by crooks and oafs and still yield the truth.  
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What people on Usenet are saying about ozone

A hypertexted version of Parson's FAQ

Other places to find the FAQ

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Is there an ozone hole this time of year?
[ picture: daily update of South Pole ]

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I extracted and hypertexted the below from Robert Parson's
Ozone Depletion FAQ Part I: Introduction to the Ozone Layer
of 24 May 1996.   These include links to sites like NASA, EPA, universities, private sites, and other FAQs. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

*!* Subject: Internet Resources

This list is preliminary and by no means comprehensive; it includes a few sites that I have found particularly useful and which provide good *starting points* for further exploration.

Some of the more interesting scientific web pages include:

-----cut here----- a zillion other links....

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "The ozone hole is a HOAX!!" -- Rush Limbaugh.
Ya, right.   =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- *!* return: Science, Ecology, Economics, Environment, and Politics (title)
*!* Scientists Warning:
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*!* Feedback: [e-mail button]
Douglas Bashford - bashford@psn.com

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http://www.psnw.com/~bashford/e-03.html born June 30 '96
12664 hits since June 30 '96