Ozone layer showing 'signs

of recovery', UN says
By Roger HarrabinBBC environment analyst
11 September 2014

The ozone layer that shields the earth from cancercausing ultraviolet rays is showing early signs of thickening
after years of depletion, a UN study says. The ozone hole that
appears annually over Antarctica has also stopped growing
bigger every year. The report says it will take a decade
before the hole starts to shrink.
Scientists say the recovery is entirely due to political
determination to phase out the man-made CFC gases
destroying ozone.
The study was published by researchers from the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP).
"International action on the ozone layer is a major
environmental success story... This should encourage us to
display the same level of urgency and unity to tackle the
even greater challenge of tackling climate change," said
WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.
Dr Ken Jucks from the US space agency Nasa told BBC
News that humans "have started to do the right thing in
order to convert the atmosphere back towards what it was
before the industrial revolution started".
Scientists cannot be absolutely certain yet that the
hole will heal itself. Prof David Vaughan from the British
Antarctic Survey (BAS) said that test results from his
organisation would throw extra light on the WMO's findings.
Icebergs drift in the sea in Cierva Cove, on the coast of
the Antarctic Peninsula in Antarctica. The largest hole in the
ozone layer appears over Antarctica
"We have to be a bit cautious, but this does look on
the face of it like some very good news," he told BBC News.
"Our own data from the Antarctic will take a few weeks to

process but we hope to confirm the findings. If it's accurate,

it underlines the potential power of international agreement."
The good news on ozone comes in the wake of bad
news on the gases fuelling climate change. The WMO said
this week that atmospheric greenhouse gases had reached a
record high.
Tackling a gas like carbon dioxide (CO2) which is
central to so many facets of human life is of a completely
different order to reducing a few chemicals for which
substitutes can be found.
The 1987 Montreal Protocol that banned or phased out
ozone-eating
depleting
chemicals,
including
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) once widely used in refrigerators
and spray cans, would prevent two million cases of skin
cancer annually by 2030, according to UNEP.
It would also help prevent damage to wildlife, agriculture,
peoples' eyes and immune systems, the agency added.
The WMO say ozone should recover towards its 1980
level by mid-century, or slightly later for Antarctica, where it
gets dangerously thin every year between mid-August and
November or December.
It says progress could be improved by as much as 11 years if
existing stocks of ozone-depleting substances - many of them
stored up in old fridges and fire-extinguishers - were
destroyed.

One atom of chlorine can destroy more than a hundred

thousand ozone molecules, according to the the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
The ozone layer is a belt of naturally occurring ozone gas
that sits 9.3 to 18.6 miles (15 to 30 kilometers) above Earth
and serves as a shield from the harmful ultraviolet B
radiation emitted by the sun.
Ozone is a highly reactive molecule that contains three
oxygen atoms. It is constantly being formed and broken down
in the high atmosphere, 6.2 to 31 miles (10 to 50 kilometers)
above Earth, in the region called the stratosphere.
Today, there is widespread concern that the ozone layer is
deteriorating due to the release of pollution containing the
chemicals chlorine and bromine. Such deterioration allows
large amounts of ultraviolet B rays to reach Earth, which can
cause skin cancer and cataracts in humans and harm animals
as well.
Extra ultraviolet B radiation reaching Earth also inhibits the
reproductive cycle of phytoplankton, single-celled organisms
such as algae that make up the bottom rung of the food
chain. Biologists fear that reductions in phytoplankton
populations will in turn lower the populations of other
animals. Researchers also have documented changes in the
reproductive rates of young fish, shrimp, and crabs as well as
frogs and salamanders exposed to excess ultraviolet B.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), chemicals found mainly in spray
aerosols heavily used by industrialized nations for much of
the past 50 years, are the primary culprits in ozone layer
breakdown. When CFCs reach the upper atmosphere, they
are exposed to ultraviolet rays, which causes them to break
down into substances that include chlorine. The chlorine
reacts with the oxygen atoms in ozone and rips apart the
ozone molecule.

The ozone layer above the Antarctic has been particularly

impacted by pollution since the mid-1980s. This regions low
temperatures speed up the conversion of CFCs to chlorine. In
the southern spring and summer, when the sun shines for
long periods of the day, chlorine reacts with ultraviolet rays,
destroying ozone on a massive scale, up to 65 percent. This
is what somepeople erroneously refer to as the "ozone hole."
In other regions, the ozone layer has deteriorated by about
20 percent.
About 90 percent of CFCs currently in the atmosphere were
emitted by industrialized countries in the Northern
Hemisphere, including the United States and Europe. These
countries banned CFCs by 1996, and the amount of chlorine
in the atmosphere is falling now. But scientists estimate it will
take another 50 years for chlorine levels to return to their
natural levels.

But they also reflect light when released in the atmosphere,

which keeps sunlight out and causes Earth to cool. Volcanic
eruptions can spew massive amounts of sulfur dioxide into
the atmosphere, sometimes causing cooling that lasts for
years. In fact, volcanoes used to be the main source of
atmospheric sulfur dioxide; today people are.

Smog hanging over cities is the most familiar and obvious

form of air pollution. But there are different kinds of pollution
some visible, some invisiblethat contribute to global
warming. Generally any substance that people introduce into
the atmosphere that has damaging effects on living things
and the environment is considered air pollution.
Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that
is warming Earth. Though living things emit carbon dioxide
when they breathe, carbon dioxide is widely considered to be
a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants,
and other human activities that involve the burning of fossil
fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. In the past 150 years,
such activities have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere to raise its levels higher than they have been for
hundreds of thousands of years.
Other greenhouse gases include methanewhich comes
from such sources as swamps and gas emitted by livestock
and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were used in
refrigerants and aerosol propellants until they were banned
because of their deteriorating effect on Earth's ozone layer.
Another pollutant associated with climate change is sulfur
dioxide, a component of smog. Sulfur dioxide and closely
related chemicals are known primarily as a cause of acid rain.

Industrialized countries have worked to reduce levels of

sulfur dioxide, smog, and smoke in order to improve people's
health. But a result, not predicted until recently, is that the
lower sulfur dioxide levels may actually make global warming
worse. Just as sulfur dioxide from volcanoes can cool the
planet by blocking sunlight, cutting the amount of the
compound in the atmosphere lets more sunlight through,
warming the Earth. This effect is exaggerated when elevated
levels of other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap the
additional heat.
Most people agree that to curb global warming, a variety of
measures need to be taken. On a personal level, driving and
flying less, recycling, and conservation reduces a persons
"carbon footprint"the amount of carbon dioxide a person is
responsible for putting into the atmosphere.
On a larger scale, governments are taking measures to limit
emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
One way is through the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement
between countries that they will cut back on carbon dioxide
emissions. Another method is to put taxes on carbon
emissions or higher taxes on gasoline, so that people and
companies will have greater incentives to conserve energy
and pollute less.

each year and yet David Cameron's government has done

nothing to solve the problem."
DIESEL FUMES ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS
The researchers found that just two hours of exposure to
traffic fumes caused significant reductions in lung capacity
among people with respiratory conditions such as chronic
bronchitis or emphysema. The most dangerous chemicals
appeared to be nitrogen dioxide from diesel engines, which in
London includes both buses and taxis.
Diesel fumes also contain microscopic carbon particles that
are believed to enter the blood and increase the risk of heart
attack.
The study shows the need to reduce traffic-related pollution,
said Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung
Foundation.

Air pollution from vehicles damages your lungs

and cardiovascular system after just two hours
on busy street
Wednesday, December 17, 2014 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer

Just two hours on a busy city street is enough to cause

damage to your lungs and arteries, according to a study
conducted by researchers from the Royal Brompton and
Harefield NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom.
The findings came just weeks after the European Court of
Justice ruled that air pollution levels in 16 British cities were
so high as to place the British government in violation of EU
law.
"This European Court of Justice judgement is a damning
indictment of the Tory-led Government's total failure to tackle
the UK's air pollution," said Shadow Environment Secretary
Maria Eagle. "Air pollution is a serious public health issue
facing our towns and cities, tens of thousands of lives are lost

The recent findings reinforce prior research, which has shown

that air pollution significantly increases the risk of heart and
lung diseases. In fact, a study conducted by researchers from
the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Great Britain and
published in the journal BMC Public Health in 2007 actually
found that living in a major city placed a person at greater
risk of premature death than exposure to the 1986 Chernobyl
nuclear meltdown did.
The researchers found that firefighters who responded to the
1986 disaster and people who continued to live in the
exclusion zone around the radioactive plant were 1 percent
more likely to die early than people who had not been
exposed to that much radiation (the equivalent of 12,000
chest X-rays). In contrast, inhabitants of central London were
2.8 percent more likely to die from heart and lung disease
linked to air pollution than inhabitants of Inverness, the least
polluted city in Britain.
"Populations still living unofficially in the abandoned lands
around Chernobyl may actually have a lower health risk for
radiation than they would have if they were exposed to air
pollution in a large city," researcher Jim Smith wrote.

THE WORLD'S MOST POLLUTED STREET

In April 2014, a thick smog forced schools across Britain to
keep children indoors, and adults to cancel outdoor exercise.
Then, just months later, researchers from King's College
London found that Oxford Street in London has the world's
highest recorded concentrations of nitrogen dioxide. They
believe that the tall buildings lining both sides of the street
box in diesel fumes.
"Airways obstruction and a stiffening of the arteries occurred
in both the healthy volunteers and people with lung disease,
even after limited exposure to diesel pollution," researcher
Rudy Sinharay said.
"On the [whole], the major health risk is cumulative over a
long period of time. Christmas shoppers shouldn't panic, but
it would be wise for people with chronic lung or heart disease
to check the air pollution forecast and limit their exposure on
very polluted days."
It was problems such as these that caused environmental law
firm ClientEarth to sue the British government in the
European Court, leading to the recent ruling.
"Thousands of people die because of air pollution every
year," ClientEarth lawyer Alan Andrews said. "This ruling will
save lives by forcing the Government to finally take this issue
seriously."

Degraded land puts

food supply at risk: UN
"Humankind can no longer treat these vital resources
as if they were infinite," said Jacques Diouf, head of the UN
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) based in Rome.

"The time for business as usual is over," Diouf told

reporters, calling the FAO's assessment of the planet's
resources, a first for the organisation, a "wake-up call."
The survey found that 25 percent of the world's land is
"highly degraded" and 44 percent is "moderately degraded,"
while only 10 percent was classified as "improving". The
categories in the report entitled "The State of the World's
Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture" (SOLAW)
included classic soil and water degradation, as well as other
aspects like biodiversity loss.
The report said land degradation was worst down the
west coast of the Americas, across the Mediterranean region
of southern Europe and north Africa, across the Sahel and the
Horn of Africa and throughout Asia.
"Worldwide, the poorest have the least access to land and
water and are locked in a poverty trap of small farms with
poor-quality soils and high vulnerability to land degradation
and climatic uncertainty," it said.
Some 40 percent of degraded lands are found in high poverty
areas.
The report called for more efficient water use by
agriculture as well as innovative farming practices such as
conservation agriculture, agro-forestry and integrated croplivestock systems.
It said developing countries will need around $1.0 trillion
(755 billion euros) in investments between 2007 and 2050 for
irrigation. Land protection will require $160 billion over the
same period, it added.
The FAO stressed that erosion, desertification and climate
change were endangering key production systems across the
world from the Mediterranean to southern Africa to Southeast
Asia.
The publication coincided with the start of UN talks on
climate change in Durban, South Africa, amid signs of a
deepening political rift on how to slow the carbon juggernaut.
Topping the agenda of the talks is the fate of the Kyoto
Protocol, the only global pact with targets for curbing
greenhouse-gas emissions, whose first round of pledges
expires at the end of 2012.
The conference must also push ahead with a "Green
Climate Fund" to channel up to 100 billion dollars a year by

2020 to countries exposed to drought, flood, storms and

rising seas, which scientists forecast will worsen.
The FAO said many farming areas "face the risk of
progressive breakdown of their productive capacity under a
combination of excessive demographic pressure and
unsustainable agricultural use and practices."
It said that between 1961 and 2009 the world's
cropland grew by 12 percent while farming production
expanded 150 percent -- mainly thanks to a significant
increase in yields of major crops because of scientific
advances.
But rates of productivity are now decreasing in many areas -key "warning signs" for the state of the land, the organisation
said.
The worst indicator was for East Asia, where the FAO
found that cereal production grew at an annual rate of 2.5

percent between 1961 and 2006 but was expected to

advance by just 0.3 percent a year between 2006 and 2050.
Productivity has however increased in Central America
and Eastern Europe.
The FAO said production would have to increase above the
rate of population growth because of rising incomes and
dietary changes, such as growing consumption of dairy and
meat products in the developing world.
With pressure on natural resources, competition for land and
water will become "pervasive" including between city and
rural dwellers, the FAO said.
"These systems at risk may simply not be able to contribute
as expected in meeting human demands by 2050. The
consequences in terms of hunger and poverty are
unacceptable," Diouf said.