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The Hindu News Update Service

Global warming may delay recovery of stratospheric ozone
THE HINDU February 6, 2009 Global warming may delay recovery of stratospheric ozone Increasing greenhouse gases could delay, or even postpone indefinitely the recovery of stratospheric ozone in some regions of the Earth, a new study suggests. This change might take a toll on public health.Darryn W. Waugh, an atmospheric scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and his colleagues report that climate change could provoke variations in the circulation of air in the lower stratosphere in tropical and southern mid-latitudes — a band of the Earth including Australia and Brazil. The circulation changes would cause ozone levels in these areas never to return to levels that were present before decline began, even after ozone-depleting substances have been wiped out from the atmosphere.”Global warming causes changes in the speed that the air is transported into and through the lower stratosphere [in tropical and southern mid-latitudes],” says Waugh. “You’re moving the air through it quicker, so less ozone gets formed.”……………………………………..

According to a press release issued by EurekAlert, Dan Lubin, an atmospheric scientist who has studied the relationship between ozone depletion and variations in the ultraviolet radiation that reaches the Earth, says Waugh’s findings could bode ill for people living in the tropics and southern mid-latitudes.

If ozone levels never return to pre-1960 levels in those regions, “the risk of skin cancer for fair-skinned populations living in countries like Australia and New Zealand, and probably in Chile and Argentina too, will be greater in the 21st century than it was during the 20th century,” says Lubin,

The Hindu News Update Service

Tags: globalwarming

February 9, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized