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- Newsgroups: sci.environment
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!agate!boulder!ucsu!cubldr.colorado.edu!parson_r
- From: parson_r@cubldr.colorado.edu (Robert Parson)
- Subject: Re: Steering Clinton onto the right track
- Message-ID: <1992Nov19.181235.1@cubldr.colorado.edu>
- Lines: 25
- Sender: news@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (USENET News System)
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- Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
- References: <1992Nov18.203503.12198@gn.ecn.purdue.edu> <1992Nov18.213351.1@cubldr.colorado.edu> <1992Nov19.112926.1@cubldr.colorado.edu> <1992Nov19.201945.22219@meteor.wisc.edu>
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 01:12:35 GMT
- Lines: 25
-
- In article <1992Nov19.201945.22219@meteor.wisc.edu>, tobis@meteor.wisc.edu (Michael Tobis) writes:
- > In article <1992Nov19.112926.1@cubldr.colorado.edu>
- > parson_r@cubldr.colorado.edu (Robert Parson) writes:
- >>
- >> (discussion of mid-latitude ozone depletion)
- >
- > Quite so, but actually a bit beside the point, since you are discussing
- > ozone statistics for middle ond low latitudes, where a bit of care is
- > required with the statistics. As far as springtime Antarctic column ozone
- > goes, however, no such quibbling is needed. This was appromixately steady
- > from 1956 (when measurement started) to 1970, and has dropped precipitously
- > to about 50% of previous levels since then. This is not correlated with
- > volcanos or sunspot cycles and is well correlated with stratospheric
- > chlorine, which in turn is known to be mostly of anthropogenic origin.
- >
- Well, I was answering a question about global average effects. But your point
- is well taken. It is important to distinguish between _ozone depletion_,
- a phenomenon which is, _so far_, small compared to natural fluctuations,
- and _the Antarctic Ozone Hole_, which is far outside the range of any
- natural fluctuations or cycles. The evidence that halogen-containing radicals
- are the cause of the ozone hole is indisputable; the evidence that they
- are the cause of mid-latitude depletion is less direct, because the
- effects are smaller and harder to measure.
-
- Robert
-