To the Editor,
Re: We’ve made it this far without knowing it all, Letters, June 14.
For the edification of Gordon Pratt, science is unequivocal.
It was the chlorine in chlorofluorocarbons that were responsible for ozone depletion.
Chemists invented CFCs in 1928 and by 1985 global use of CFCs stood at 1.8 million tons. CFCs are stable and one single atom of chlorine found in CFCs can destroy 100,000 ozone molecules, and the reason it was noticed over the south pole is CFC’s destructive characteristics are at their best at temperatures below –43 C.
The hole they punched into the ozone resulted in documented significant increases in skin cancer to those south of 40 degrees latitude.
Ozone itself is unstable and requires ultraviolet radiation to create the tri-atomic oxygen molecule called ozone.
Since the global banning of CFCs that came out of the Montreal Protocol, our ozone is healing itself.
That thin film of stratospheric ozone (three millimeters if brought to sea level) is why life exists on Earth and the global banning of CFCs was one of our greatest triumphs.
The writer’s tax-grab theory would require a collective conspiracy with government, environmentalists and the world’s scientists; maybe you should ask Jesse Ventura to investigate.
Ron Heusen
Nanaimo
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