September brings two annual aituals. The first is the yearly checkup that scientists give the "ozone hole." True to recent form, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced last week that the Antarctic ozone hole, a drastic thinning of the protective atmosphere over the South Pole, is already twice the size it was last September. At 3.9 million square miles, it's as big as Europe and still growing. The second ritual follows the first: despite the gaping hole, policymakers declare that ozone depletion is under control. A 1987 international treaty requires the phaseout of chlorofluorocarbons (CFGs), chemicals that eat ozone molecules like so many Pac-Men. As a result, the ozone layer (which blocks dangerous ultraviolet sunlight) will reach its prepollution levels by 2050 or so ... "if everyone sticks to the rules," as a WMO scientist said.
展开▼
