Authored by Carly Cassella via Science Alert,
It’s been exactly one year since US scientists reported a mysterious surge in ozone-destroying chemicals, known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
Banned in 1987 under the globally signed Montreal Protocol, there was only one explanation: somewhere out there, in an unknown location, someone must have gone rogue, setting back progress on the ozone hole by a decade or more.
After much speculation, the whereabouts and magnitude of these harmful emissions has been confirmed in scientific research. As earlier reporting in The New York Times had already suggested, they seem to be coming from the northeast coast of mainland China.
Since the Montreal Protocol was declared a success in 2013, this highly industrial region has continued to emit, whether accidentally or not, CFC-11: the second most abundant chlorofluorocarbon in the atmosphere. Between the periods of 2008-2012 and 2014-2017, in fact, CFC-11 emissions increased here by roughly 110 percent.
“This increase accounts for a substantial fraction (at least 40 to 60 per cent) of the global rise in CFC-11 emissions,” an international team of researchers writes in a new report.
“We find no evidence for a significant increase in CFC-11 emissions from any other eastern Asian countries or other regions of the world where there are available data for the detection of regional emissions.”
These violations are likely going unreported because even though CFC-11 is illegal, it is also one of the cheapest ways to produce new foam insulation in refrigerators and buildings.
After tracking down documents and international sources, journalists at The New York Times and independent investigators discovered that in some factories in China, illegal CFC use has been slipping through the cracks for years.
The examples given are based in Xingfu, a rural industrial town in China’s Shandong province, and incidentally, that is the very same province that the scientists landed on too.
Gathering atmospheric observations from locations in South Korea and Japan, the researchers compared global monitoring data and atmospheric chemical movements to figure out whether these emissions came from eastern Asia – the area most suspected as the source of CFC-11.
Along with Shandong, the nearby province of Hebei was also implicated. Both regions are big industrial producers heavily involved in the nation’s manufacturing, and while the chemical may not actually be produced here, it’s certainly being emitted at alarming rates somewhere nearby.
“To bring about such an increase … would require new emissions from the disposal and destruction of refrigerators more than 10 times higher than recently estimated for the whole of China between 2014 and 2017,” the authors write, “or a larger and more rapid increase in emissions from the demolition of old buildings than was previously predicted for the entire world over a 20-year period (2020–2040).”
Whether these factories know what they’re doing or not (and the NYT report certainly suggests they understand), their actions pose a serious threat not only to the ozone layer, but also to the climate crisis. CFC-11 has a powerful heat-trapping effect in the atmosphere, so if emissions continue as they are, experts say it would be equivalent to the amount of CO2 produced by 16 coal-fired power stations every year.
China currently produces about one-third of the world’s polyurethane foam, and the emissions so far may only represent a fraction of what has already been manufactured. The rest of the CFC-11 may still be trapped inside a slowly-emitting foam bank, and the only way to know for sure is to find the ones responsible.
Unfortunately, the new research is unable to zoom in any closer on the culprit, so it is still unclear whether these emissions are widespread across both these Chinese regions, or scattered among just a few sources. For now, the hunt continues.
This study has been published in Nature.
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Another control SCAM by our esteemed State funded “scientists”. Solar output, specifically UV light drives the major production of Ozone in our atmosphere. Been proved for decades now. Since they’re losing the “global warming” SCAM fight, they are just shifting to another battle front.
Might be BS, but if not, maybe Al Gore should ring up AOC, tell her to pack a bag, come to one of his mansions.
Then they can get on a private jet, fly over to see Xi, and tell him to clean up those plants belching poison.
Nah, that’d make too much sense. Plus China would tell them to GF themselves, and GTF out of East Asia.
Prolly what he said to Orange man, too.
It’s easier to just sell the local idiots on the idea that carbon tax credits must be issued, then used as a commodity, to sell to perceived flagrant violators here. Barter. Exchange-swaps.
Unfortunately, cattle farmers are ineligible to purchase credits, for the overabundance of flatulance emitted by their bovine herd. Wide-eyed Alexy is at her wit’s end, on how to deal with this, and the clock’s ticking on that 12-year timeline~deadline.
That’s my opinion, from the cheap seats.
Follow the money. “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”
So are these scientists ready to go to war with China to stop it? Send their children to fight that war too.
hmm, lets see, this “story” was written by the NYT, the chief propaganda outlet for the banking cartels and their associated lackeys in the deep states of all the western nations (5 eyes).
Therefore, it must be true, because these folks would never lead you down the wrong path.
They would never use “unnamed sources in the intelligence community” to engage in sedition, and if they did make a mistake, I am sure they would issue a retraction.
now, I have a nice bridge I would like to sell you, it is currently for sale, and you can own it with just a few thousand dollars down payment, then, you can collect the tolls and become a millionaire, like me!
It’s funny to me that CFC’s are so “dangerous to the ozone layer” when they contain Chlorine, Fluorine, and Carbon in different combinations. I mean, WE are carbon, right? And in the US, “they” put Chlorine and Fluorine together in the water supply. And “it” is good for us, right? Right?
I know that my observation is an oversimplification and that chemistry is much more complicated than I MAY be suggesting, but certain substances are very reactive, even dangerous. The halogens, for example, which Chlorine and Fluorine are:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-chemistry/chapter/halogens/
So, what are the expected rates of cancer in the US, again?
And as for CFC 11 – here’s an MSDS. Bad stuff. Anyone working with it is supposed to wear an impervious suit. (Sunscreen does not count.)
http://www.refrigerants.com/pdf/SDS%20R11.pdf
I’ll be happy to double-down on your “my observation is… chemistry is much more complicated than I MAY be suggesting,”
“Atmospheric science” is complicated beyond anyone’s current standing.
Even at their most complicated, “Weather Forecasting” models must use an assumed ‘constant’ for cloud creation/accumulation and dissolution. Nobody has been able to derive an accurate algorithm for how clouds appear and disappear except the circular model everyone remembers from 6th grade science.
“Ocean water evaporates into clouds that become rain which create rivers that run into oceans that…”
We haven’t taken one step closer to understanding clouds.
But ‘media’ experts claim that we have identified all the atmospheric interactions, choreographed the impenetrably complex dance involving all six Nobel Gasses and their ignoble relatives.
“We know and understand what is happening. We have complex, multidimensional models that inform us China is an existential treat to humanity.”
Laughable, if misinformation weren’t the most deadly existential threat to humanity…
…continue to rise and rise and flood small islands and coastline cities until one day, all of Florida, Manhattan, and Baltimore will be underwater.”
So . . . reckon we should bomb them now?
Call it “Preemptive Climate Mitigation”?
I mean, violence is the only recourse for the misinformed.
Nobody want real news.
It always arrives in one’s face like a fist.
So . . . is that a “yes”? 🙂
So I imagine many will be quick to blame the Chinese for all the world’s problems. But isn’t “we” who buy the stuff they make that we really don’t need with money we don’t have, that are to blame? Just asking.
Boy howdy. Gotta love all those solar fields(replacing farmland) out my way with the Chinese writing(characters) on the boxes. Probably producing just enough megawatts to keep govt and wall street alight.
Northern Abolitionists wearing southern slave-picked cotton clothing.
It’s no coincidence this “Finding” comes out AFTER China threatens rare earth exportation. The filthy bastards are well aware of their indifferent spoilation of the planet and are taking the necessary steps towards cleaning or rather, covering up their grave sins.(shifting it to their holdings on another continent, Africa as no organization would dare pick on the poor and wretched souls of that money dump).
Trade wars and the fear of warfare is sheer bunk.
To have been a fly on the wall at Mar A Lago…
Lightning is the primary creator of ozone in the atmosphere. I say bring on more thunderstorms!