/ 20 August 2021

Getting in the ozone

If you’re of a certain vintage, you might recall the push to ban chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) in the 80s because they were piercing a hole in the ozone, and Antarctica might melt. Polystyrene largely disappeared, spray cans changed, and so did the stuff that made fridges work… Today, scientists reckon those efforts saved the Earth an extra 2.5C of warming by the end of the century. That’s because they believe the ongoing depletion of ozone (aka the gas that protects us from harmful levels of ultraviolet radiation) would have compromised Earth’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide. And frankly, we’ve got enough challenges with CO2, thank you very much…  Meanwhile, federal Labor says it will propose a more ambitious climate target than the Coalition’s net-zero emissions sorta/kinda/preferably by 2050 ambition. Gotta love the last year of an election cycle…

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