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Hello fellow citizens of Whyville, and a special salutations to our
Senators and Times Writers! I begin today with a question. Is the hole
in the ozone layer dangerous?
If you're like most people, then you probably say, "Yes, of course.
Everybody knows that." All right then, since you seem to be such an
expert on the ozone layer, then riddle me this; where in the atmosphere
is the hole in the ozone layer?
You don't know? Well then, how do you know it's dangerous? If you
really don't know, it's over Antarctica, and it's only there in the
late fall to early winter, during an annual storm in that region. The
reason that it only exists during the storm is that that is the only
time when heavy CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons, which destroy ozone) can be
lifted up high enough to begin to damage the atmosphere.
Contrary to popular belief, the hole in the ozone layer hasn't been
growing larger except by the natural fluctuations that have been
occurring since long before human production of CFCs. Now that you know
our CFC production has done very little in the grand scheme of the
environment, and knowing that the hole in the ozone layer only exists
for a few months and even then over an unpopulated area of the planet,
does it seem so dangerous anymore?
And yet, the media has managed to take the authority to write
scientific law from the scientists and blow a non-problem out of
proportion to the point where now CFC production has been virtually
halted in the U.S. and Canada -- we may still use the already-produced
machines that produce CFCs, but factories cannot legally build them
anymore.
I believe this could prove disastrous. CFCs have made food and blood
storage safer and saved people from food poisoning and allowed
hospitals keep blood longer, saving more lives. Not to mention the
lives saved by the effects CFCs have had on firefighting technology.
People, this is a problem. Unless factories are once again allowed to
produce CFCs, we will run out of these lifesaving materials. Do you
believe in science, or do you believe in truth?
Editor's
Note: Thank you for your report, Arnan -- please post where you
got your information so we can all share it, and have a fair chance to
debate and understand the situation. From what I understand,
refrigerators that use CFCs are no more useful than those that don't,
though of course they were expensive to develop. So why would our food
and blood storage would be in danger? Perhaps you've found experts who
can explain why it would be a problem? Also, when I studied the hole in
the ozone layer back in 8th grade, I found some very different facts
about the damages caused by CFCs and the increasing rate of skin cancer
among North Americans. But it's possible some new information has come
to light in the last many years! (Also, everyone please keep in mind
that it's the hole that's the
problem, not the layer. We've received a few reports about the
"dangerous ozone layer" in the past. :)
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