Ozone-destroying chemical emissions on rise despite ban
Washington, May 17: Emissions of one of the chemicals that can cause hole in the ozone layer are on the rise, despite an international treaty that required an end to its production in 2010, a new study says.
What is even more troubling is that scientists are not sure at present why emissions of this gas are increasing.
This gas, Trichlorofluoromethane, or CFC-11, is a member of the family of chemicals most responsible for the giant hole in the ozone layer that forms over Antarctica each September.
Once widely used as a foaming agent, production of CFC-11 was phased out by the Montreal Protocol in 2010.
The new study, published in the journal Nature, documents an unexpected increase in emissions of this gas, likely from new, unreported production.
"We're raising a flag to the global community to say, 'This is what's going on, and it is taking us away from timely recovery from ozone depletion,'" said lead author of the paper Stephen Montzka, a scientist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US.
"Further work is needed to figure out exactly why emissions of CFC-11 are increasing and if something can be done about it soon," Montzka said.
For the study, scientists at NOAA and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at University of Colorado, Boulder, in the US made precise measurements of global atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11.
The results showed that CFC-11 concentrations declined at an accelerating rate prior to 2002 as expected.
Then, surprisingly, the rate of decline hardly changed over the decade that followed. Even more unexpected was that the rate of decline slowed by 50 percent after 2012.
After considering a number of possible causes, Montzka and his colleagues concluded that CFC emissions must have increased after 2012.
This conclusion was confirmed by other changes recorded in NOAA's measurements during the same period, such as a widening difference between CFC-11 concentrations in the northern and southern hemispheres -- evidence that the new source was somewhere north of the equator.
Measurements from Hawaii indicate the sources of the increasing emissions are likely in eastern Asia, the study said.
More work will be needed to narrow down the locations of these new emissions, Montzka said.
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Siddaramaiah defends BPL ration card cancellation, says only ineligible beneficiaries affected
New Delhi, Nov 21: In a strong defence of the Karnataka government's move to cancel ration cards, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday clarified that only government employees and income tax payers are being weeded out from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list, not eligible poor beneficiaries.
Talking to reporters, Siddaramaiah asserted that the cancellation is in line with the National Food Security Act, which explicitly bars government employees and income tax payers from receiving BPL ration cards.
He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of raising a politically motivated issue despite originally opposing the food security legislation.
"The rights of eligible ration card holders will be fully protected," the chief minister emphasised, dismissing opposition claims that the move was linked to fund constraints for implementing poll promises.
ALSO READ: Karnataka to reissue BPL cards for eligible families: Deputy CM DK Shivakumar
The controversy stems from the Karnataka government's recent survey identifying 22.63 lakh BPL card-holders as ineligible. This move has triggered a political slugfest between the ruling Congress and the BJP.
Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi claimed the central government had directed the state to clean the beneficiary lists. He alleged that the card cancellation was a strategy to avoid implementing the state's Gruha Lakshmi Yojana scheme.
Siddaramaiah hit back, reminding that the food security law was introduced during the Manmohan Singh government in 2013 to protect poor citizens' interests. He criticised the BJP for previously reducing food grain allocation from seven kg to five kg per beneficiary during B S Yediyurappa's tenure.
The chief minister categorically stated that there would be no compromise on the five poll guarantees and that sufficient funds were available for their implementation.
Siddaramaiah was in the national capital for the launch of Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation Ltd's Nandini brands in Delhi. He also met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the issue of farm loan.
