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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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
