At Meetings, U.S. to Seek Support for Broad Ozone Exemptions

[Khephra]

The two-decade effort to eliminate chemicals that harm the ozone layer faces its most serious test in recent years this week as the Bush administration seeks international support for broad exemptions to a 2005 ban on a popular pesticide.

Many American farmers say the pesticide, methyl bromide, is vital as they try to compete with farm production in countries where fields are tended by low-paid laborers. Critics of the proposed exemptions, led by the European Union, say that substitute chemicals are already in wide use and that the American request threatens progress toward repairing the ozone layer, which shields the earth from radiation that causes cancers and other problems.

The United States and 180 other countries begin a weeklong meeting today in Nairobi to consider the methyl bromide question and other aspects of the Montreal Protocol, a 1987 treaty eliminating a host of ozone-destroying substances. Methyl bromide was added to the treaty in the first Bush administration.

The issue is widening a rift that separates Europe and the United States on a number of environmental issues, including the stringency of testing for industrial chemicals and the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty controlling emissions linked to global warming, which President Bush has rejected.

more...........

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/10/politics/10OZON.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Interestingly...

I seem to remember that methyl Bromide is one of the things that the chemtrail crazies say is in the chemtrails.

I could be wrong though, considering the state of my memory. ;-)

[PartyPooper]

2. We can all say goodbye to planet earth

if Bu$h is elected next year. Mother Earth simply won't survive another 4 years of Junior's woeful negligence and willful abuse.

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[kimchi]

3. Use is declining already, and it has been uniformly seen as a hazard.

...Senior American environmental, agricultural and State Department officials have been urging their counterparts around the world to support the exemptions, which, if granted this week, would cause a substantial increase in American use of the chemical after a long decline.

Industry lobbyists have gone a step further in recent weeks, seeking support from governments by contending that methyl bromide poses no significant threat and that the ozone layer is already healing.

That view is strongly disputed by many atmospheric chemists, who say that while human sources of methyl bromide are less significant than was once thought, they remain a significant destroyer of ozone. Experts almost uniformly say the damage to the ozone layer is unlikely to mend for at least 50 years.

*************
Use has been steadily declining. That tells me there ARE alternatives that people are using. Don't tell me our ancestors didn't grown strawberries without this chemical. Ridiculous. People have such a reckless view of Mother Nature.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Huh?

"Many American farmers say the pesticide, methyl bromide, is vital as they try to compete with farm production in countries where fields are tended by low-paid laborers."

So the guys tending fields here are white-collar-salaried professionals? :shrug:

[hatrack]

5. Meanwhile, high above Antarctica . . .

"Recent analysis of satellite-based measurements by scientists from the National
Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) shows that record amounts of
ozone were destroyed over Antarctica in September this year.

On each day over the period 23 to 26 September the amount of ozone lost over
Antarctica exceeded the previous daily record of 45.5 million tons recorded in
2000. On 25 September this year a record loss of 47.3 million tons was reached."

EDIT

But God forbid - GOD FORBID! - that we pay fifty cents more for a flat of strawberries!!!

Let's use more ozone-depleting chemicals instead!

DU Link

[hatrack]

6. Then there's this postcard from the depleted zone in Chile . . .

"A Chilean friend brought to my attention an unusual eight day workshop being presented by the
University of Tarapaca in Arica, Chile, a seaport in the shadow of the Andes, one of the driest spots on
earth. The subject, "Radiacion Solar Y Sus Efectos" (Solar Radiation and Its Effects), was very
interesting, to me, and since I am acquainted with the main attraction, the internationally recognized
atmospheric scientist, Sasha Madronich, and since I can't stand being in the United States during
elections, I voted absentee, signed up and left Lalafornia.

EDIT

It was a big surprise to hear from a friend from Punta Arenas, on the Strait of Magellan, that the
president of Chile and the newly elected reformist president of Argentina had met in Santa Cruz Province
in August this year and agreed to collaborate in studying the environmental effects of ozone depletion
and global warming. They issued a statement urging all the industrialized countries to ratify the Kyoto
protocol. This highly unusual meeting did not make the news in the US. It was an even bigger surprise to hear from my friend that Chile, on its own, was setting up an integrated monitoring system to study ultraviolet radiation and its effects, from Arica to Punta Arenas along the coast, up in the mountains, and even over in Chilean Antarctica. A vast distance covering over 40° of
latitude- a huge chunk of the world.

EDIT

Another Chilean scientist presented a paper on unusually large numbers of children treated for severe
sunburns during the summertime (December-February) in Santiago, the mid latitude capital, from
1996-2001. What was unusual about this study was that no effort was made to connect the implied
increase in short wave ultraviolet B radiation with the springtime Antarctic Ozone Hole, a source of so
much anxiety in Chile and elsewhere. Some other mechanism was implied.(More on this in the next
Coastal Post!)

EDIT

I asked if they had problems with sunlight, since, even under normal conditions, snow and ice efficiently
reflect ultraviolet. "No, but Thomas got snow blindness," he said. "Was it October 6th," I asked.
"I don't know," Thomas said, "... but my eyes are still sore. It feels like there is something like sand
rubbing under the lids. He took out his thick notebook and began leafing through page after page of
incredibly small, perfectly lined, hand written entries. Surprised he said, "It was October the 6th! How did you know? Was there any warning? We were working on the shade of a mountain out of any direct sunlight." There can be no shade with Ultraviolet B. It is reflected and scattered by water, sand, snow and ice or droplets and can come directly at you from any direction. My one and only case of snow blindness happened 1990 just south of the ice field. So it's a really good thing the Chileans are setting up their own
ground based, multi disciplinarian study program, including effects. Wouldn't it be nice if the US too did
something like that too? "

EDIT

http://www.coastalpost.com/03/11/05.htm