Ozone hole bigger than ever.
Well, whaddaya know. Freon's gone, spray cans are gone, Halon's gone, and Silly String will burn your kid's face off now. Hole's bigger than ever.
Okay, we all know this kind of thing fluctuates. Still, it's kind of fun to watch the Ozone Wizards backing water a bit.
The findings suggest that reduction of CFCs will take longer than expected to benefit the ozone layer.
That's safe, isn't it? Hole gets bigger, we haven't waited long enough. Hole gets smaller, Hey! It worked! Ya can't lose!
Dr Rodger said they [ozone levels] are probably near their peak. "We predict that it will be a decade or more before we can say unambiguously that the ozone hole is recovering - assuming that the decline in ozone depleting chemicals continues," he said.
And, of course, assuming the hole gets smaller instead of larger.
Now, if it keeps getting bigger for a few years, someone is going to start looking pretty silly. If we watch it for thirty years and discover that the damn thing goes up and down in natural cycles, the Ozone Wizards are going to look damn silly. Of course, by then they'll be retired, which is the general idea.
Okay, okay. Way too soon to tell. But I can dream, can't I?
It would be fascinating to see the environmentalists skewered on the sword of liability that they wield so well. "Hey, guys. The billions of dollars we spent to fix an ozone hole that didn't need fixing? Get out your checkbooks. Hope you got a lot of donations this year."