<del>UNSOLVED</del> MOSTLY SOLVED MYSTERY. Last month, scientists published a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0106-2.epdf?referrer_access_token=-p6EvYiRjOhJhSfBwu8Pl9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0ObYgkb7dfDTYXtPv1emzlBSi8RJa0H9HkoFXGuTiQkQhKMSLWx8UmDtuGd3LJf_K9731UnmgibpaAOAqbhKz4z1dau98c8QamcUcCkQvawB-UC5QT-Nms43EVCp93pTsvzxOrwqRMQWHKhceg1b27oAT8pDbrvOTSxuQPm4b2eOCQzNYgHZtbm_dwy_QM_6saAMMAX4BPozqS9sFxNHL0S&amp;tracking_referrer=www.nytimes.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> detailing a recent increase in emissions from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), an industrial gas banned since 2010. The New York Times launched an investigation to find the source of the emissions. On Sunday, they published their conclusion: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/world/asia/china-ozone-cfc.html?emc=edit_nn_20180625&amp;nl=morning-briefing&amp;nlid=6807231920180625&amp;te=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese factories are likely to blame</a>.
IF IT WALKS LIKE A DUCK&#8230; With the help of independent investigators , the Times conducted interviews and gathered documents to reach this conclusion, but it&#8217;s not exactly a surprise. The authors of the initial report noted that East Asia was likely the source of the new emissions; they even called out China by name.
That&#8217;s not a shocker given Chinese factories&#8217; financial incentive to keep using CFCs. The nation is the <a href="https://ihsmarkit.com/products/polyurethane-foams-chemical-economics-handbook.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">largest polyurethane foam market</a> in the world, and CFCs are the cheapest and most effective chemical option for creating this foam, as one interviewee told The Times.
HOLE-Y MOLEY. So, what&#8217;s the big deal about CFCs? Well, if you were around in the &#8217;70s and &#8217;80s, you probably remember hearing a lot about the hole in Earth&#8217;s ozone layer. Want to know why you don&#8217;t hear much about that anymore? Because of the <a href="https://www.state.gov/e/oes/eqt/chemicalpollution/83007.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Montreal Protocol</a>, a global agreement designed to phase out that use of all those chemicals that were causing the hole — including CFCs.
Thanks largely in part to that 1987 agreement, we&#8217;ve mostly healed the hole, and if the world stuck to the agreement, scientists predicted the ozone layer would be completely healed by about 2050. Anyone ignoring the ban is preventing the world from reaching that goal, perhaps delaying it by a decade, according to the original report.
CFC CRACK DOWN. The Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment didn&#8217;t have a comment for The Times at the time of publishing, but the nation has taken a tougher stance on <a href="https://futurism.com/china-is-outpacing-the-u-s-in-reducing-coal-and-lowering-emissions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pollution</a> in the past decade. It&#8217;s already started <a href="http://www.zhb.gov.cn/xxgk/gzdt/201509/t20150918_309954.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cracking down</a> on operations illegally using CFCs, too. The Times&#8216; report could spur the government to take swifter action against Chinese factories working against not only the nation&#8217;s own interests, but those of the rest of the world.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/world/asia/china-ozone-cfc.html?emc=edit_nn_20180625&amp;nl=morning-briefing&amp;nlid=6807231920180625&amp;te=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In a High-Stakes Environmental Whodunit, Many Clues Point to China</a> [The New York Times]

The Digest: China has (probably) been pumping a banned gas into the atmosphere

Earth & Energy

A New York Times investigation points to China as the source of a recent increase in emissions from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a banned industrial gas.

The Digest: China Has (Probably) Been Pumping a Banned Gas Into the Atmosphere

The nation isn't exactly the last we'd suspect.

The 17 goals of the United Nations&#8217; <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)</a> are so broad and ambitious that they seem almost ludicrous.
For example: the signatories want poverty &#8220;to end in all its forms everywhere&#8221; by 2030. Sure.
Plus, countries <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/930Report%20on%20Voluntary%20Commitments%20and%20Partnerships.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">can agree they will do their best</a> to meet these goals, from reducing inequality to taking urgent action against climate change, but at the end of the day they&#8217;re all voluntary anyway. Let&#8217;s be real, it&#8217;s very unlikely this is going to happen as soon as 2030 (or ever, cynics may argue).
So why make these goals, and commit to them, in the first place?
The <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/sdg-tracker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Our World in Data</a> initiative set out to answer this question. Its SDG Tracker collects data from official sources, such as the UN and the World Bank, and organizes them in maps and charts to help us track the progress (or regress) towards each goal. It incorporates contemporary data as well as the Millennium Development Goals, predecessors of the SDGs, have achieved.
Some indicators show an unfortunate trend — the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#road-incidents">number of deaths from road accidents</a>, for example, increased between 1990 and 2015. But things have improved in a number of key areas, from <a href="https://sdg-tracker.org/good-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener">maternal and child mortality</a> to deaths from HIV/AIDS. The number of <a href="https://sdg-tracker.org/no-poverty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">people in extreme poverty</a> dropped from from 2.2 billion in 1970 to 705.55 million in 2015.
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Overall that tool shows us something critical about these voluntary, unrealistic goals: it shows they work. Lives of people around the world are better because of them.
That could mean that similar agreements could have their intended effect, too. The Paris Agreement, for example, is also voluntary. Though some argue that <a href="https://futurism.com/stick-our-climate-goals-paris-agreement-deliver-drier-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">these commitments are nowhere near enough</a> to save the climate, governments and corporations are now taking action in a way that seemed impossible before the deal.
This works because these voluntary schemes focus on the implementation of measures on the ground. The Montreal Protocol — the voluntary international agreement that reduced the number of CFCs entering the atmosphere — thousands of experts<a href="http://web.unep.org/ozonaction/who-we-are/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> deployed to individual </a>cities to help countries as a whole move away from CFCs.
The SDGs and the Paris Agreement work similarly, engaging <a href="https://ndcpartnership.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">businesses and administrations at the local level</a>.
If that sounds boring, think of what it&#8217;s achieved so far: Protecting the ozone layer may have avoided as much as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8233" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2 million skin cancer cases</a>, and while global population has more than doubled since the 1970s, extreme poverty has been cut in half. International voluntary pacts may seem just abstract PR, but the data shows that they may be the way to go if we want a better world.

This UN tracker shows that even far-fetched voluntary pledges actually make a difference

Future Society

A new tool compares available data against the Sustainable Development Goals, showing that voluntary pledges can actually deliver on big promises.

This UN Tracker Shows That Even Far-Fetched Voluntary Pledges Actually Make a Difference

And may deliver on some huge promises.

If you grew up in the 70s or 80s, you probably heard a lot of talk about cholorofluorocarbons, AKA CFCs — chemicals used in aerosol sprays and refrigerants. That&#8217;s when we first figured out that CFCs could harm the ozone layer of our atmosphere. Suddenly, overly-hairsprayed styles from the 1980s seemed much less cool.
Then in 1987, nearly 200 nations signed the Montreal Protocol, which banned CFCs. The aim was to limit the widening of a hole in the ozone layer located above Antarctica, and that global effort was implemented during the following decade.
Fast forward nearly 30 years. The Antarctic ozone hole <a href="https://futurism.com/hole-ozone-layer-smallest-since-1988/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has become manageable</a>. The Montreal Protocol has <a href="https://futurism.com/direct-proof-human-activity-heal-ozone-hole/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">been a success</a>, helping reduce some 135 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions between 1989 to 2013. CFCs, it turned out, were actually greenhouse gases too.
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But recent evidence from a study published in the journal <a href="https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/18/1379/2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics</a> suggests that ozone levels in our planet&#8217;s lower stratosphere have been decreasing, especially in the mid-latitude areas where most people on Earth live. Researchers suspect that so-called &#8220;very short-lived substances&#8221; (VSLSes) that contain chlorine and bromine are the culprits behind the ozone decrease.
ETH Zurich atmospheric physicist William Bell, who led the study, told Futurism that the Montreal Protocol isn&#8217;t to be blamed here. The 1987 deal didn&#8217;t include VSLSes among its list of banned chemicals, mostly because these chemicals are supposed to have very short lifespans. Scientists didn&#8217;t expect they could subsist long enough to reach the stratosphere.
Apparently, they can. Worst of all, climate change could also be a factor: Bell and his colleagues <a href="https://futurism.com/ozone-layer-not-recovering/">think that climate change</a> has been sweeping ozone out of the tropics. In mid-latitude areas, the ozone layer is already thinner, and people are more exposed to ultraviolet rays.
Lots of questions remain unanswered. What&#8217;s keeping the ozone levels thin in these tropical areas, and not in higher altitude zones? If VSLSes are to blame, how are they ending up in the stratosphere? And finally, what&#8217;s the best way to address these issues? The world may need a new iteration of the Montreal Protocol, one that bans other ozone-depleting chemicals like VSLSes.

The culprit may be a chemical scientists never thought would reach the stratosphere.

Some of the ozone layer is still thinning, thanks to a surprise chemical

The ozone layer in the lower stratosphere remains dangerously thin in mid-latitude areas. This could be due to chemicals left unchecked.

Some of the Ozone Layer Is Still Thinning, Thanks to a Surprise Chemical

The worst thinning is above middle latitudes, where most people on Earth live.

<h2>Holey Relief</h2>
In 1987, 197 countries signed the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to stop releasing chemicals that were eating away a hole in <a href="https://futurism.com/100-nations-sign-a-declaration-calling-for-banning-of-extremely-potent-greenhouse-gas/">our planet&#8217;s ozone layer</a>. In a rare scientific triumph, the hole in the ozone layer has just about returned to the size it was at the time of the protocol&#8217;s signing: at its peak size in September, NASA reported that the hole was about 7.6 million square miles wide, the smallest it has been at peak since 1988.
Unfortunately, we may have helped solve one global problem with another, arguably bigger one. Warmer temperatures in the low pressure system that rotates above Antarctica, known as the Antarctic vortex, prevented many stratospheric clouds from forming; it&#8217;s within these clouds that the first steps that lead to ozone-destroying reactions occur. In other words, at least this year, we could have global warming to thank.
&#8220;Weather conditions over Antarctica were a bit weaker and led to warmer temperatures, which slowed down ozone loss,&#8221; said Paul A. Newman, chief Earth scientist at NASA&#8217;s Goddard Space Flight Center, <a href="http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/11/the_earths_ozone_hole_is_shrin.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to the Washington Post</a>. &#8220;It&#8217;s like hurricanes. Some years there are fewer hurricanes that come onshore&#8230;this is a year in which the weather conditions led to better ozone [formation].&#8221;
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Video Credit: NASA&#8217;s Goddard Space Flight Center/Kathryn Mersmann
The hole in the ozone layer was first clearly detected in 1984, by British Antarctic Survey scientists monitoring the atmosphere. After the team <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v315/n6016/abs/315207a0.html">published their discovery in 1985</a>, it spurred an international effort to reduce ozone-depleting compounds, specifically chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that were then commonly used as refrigerants. When the sun&#8217;s rays hit the chemically active forms of chlorine and bromine that come from these compounds, they produce reactions that destroy ozone.
Given that the ozone layer is primarily responsible for filtering out dangerous ultraviolet radiation from the sun, closing this hole — and preventing new ones from forming — is certainly good news. What&#8217;s more, the story of how we got here could be informative in addressing climate change as well.
<h2>The Role of International Cooperation</h2>
Though climate contributed specifically to the reduction in ozone hole size we saw this year, the global reduction in atmospheric levels of CFCs following the Montreal Protocol has been the main reason that the ozone hole has continued shrinking.
Because CFCs hang around in the atmosphere for decades, scientists estimate that it will take until 2070 for the hole to return to the size it was in 1980. However, if this reduction hadn&#8217;t happened, <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldWithoutOzone/page2.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA modelers estimate</a> that by 2020 we would have seen 17% of global ozone destroyed, with holes above both the Arctic and Antarctic; by 2065, global ozone would have been almost entirely depleted.
Ian Rae, honorary professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne, <a href="https://theconversation.com/saving-the-ozone-layer-why-the-montreal-protocol-worked-9249">wrote in The Conversation that</a> while no single factor led to the Montreal Protocol&#8217;s success, the strong leadership and open discussion during negotiation enabled &#8220;a genuine exchange of views and the opportunity to take some issues on trust.&#8221;
Including scientists in the negotiations lent credibility to the discussion; and because the science wasn&#8217;t concrete at the time, the negotiators developed a highly flexible agreement that could be retooled as the science became clearer.
Durwood Zaelke, founder and president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnx7wz/montreal-protocol-climate-agreement-hfcs-cfcs-ozone-layer-paris-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told </a><a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnx7wz/montreal-protocol-climate-agreement-hfcs-cfcs-ozone-layer-paris-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Motherboard </a><a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnx7wz/montreal-protocol-climate-agreement-hfcs-cfcs-ozone-layer-paris-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">that</a> efforts to address climate change could learn from the Montreal Protocol by breaking it into &#8220;more manageable pieces, where you can focus on solving that one piece.&#8221;
Additionally, while climate deals like the Kyoto and Paris agreements have been voluntary, trade sanctions that allowed signatories to trade only with other signatories — used as a last resort — were a big factor in getting other countries to sign up for the Montreal Protocol.
It&#8217;s true that CFCs were never as controversial as climate change, and that greenhouse gas emissions come from many more sources than the refrigerants we had to limit to save our planet&#8217;s ozone. Yet the levels of international cooperation that we saw are worth taking a lesson from — especially given the successes we see now.

It's been 30 years since the world agreed to cut down on ozone-depleting chemicals.

NASA: Hole in Earth's ozone layer is the smallest it's been since 1988

NASA scientists report that, in September, the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic reached the smallest it has been at peak since 1988.

NASA: Hole in Earth's Ozone Layer is the Smallest It's Been Since 1988

We still have work to do, but this is great for our planet.

NASA: Hole in Earth’s Ozone Layer is the Smallest It’s Been Since 1988

<h2>The Winds of Change?</h2>
In<a href="https://futurism.com/its-official-trump-just-withdrew-the-u-s-from-the-paris-climate-agreement/" target="_blank"> June of this year</a>, U.S. President Donald Trump made it clear that he doesn&#8217;t want anything to do with the historic Paris Climate Agreement, a deal accepted by 195 nations back in 2015. But on Saturday, White House officials attending <a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-09-nations-paris-climate.html" target="_blank">a special global warming summit</a> in Montreal, Canada, said that the Trump administration may opt to stay in the Paris deal, perhaps signaling a change in policy.
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/paris-climate-agreement/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/06/Homepage-Thumbnail-1.jpg" alt="Paris Climate Agreement" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/paris-climate-agreement/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
The initial report<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-wont-withdraw-from-paris-climate-deal-1505593922" target="_blank"> appeared in </a><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-wont-withdraw-from-paris-climate-deal-1505593922" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal,</a> claiming the possibility of staying in the Paris deal was confirmed by multiple officials present at the Canada summit (which was taking place 30 years after the signing of the historic <a href="http://ozone.unep.org/en/treaties-and-decisions/montreal-protocol-substances-deplete-ozone-layer">Montreal Protocol</a>). The officials reportedly said the U.S. might review the terms of the Paris deal. The position was brought up, two participants said, by White House officials in Montreal led by senior adviser Everett Eissenstat.
“The U.S. has stated that they will not renegotiate the Paris accord, but they will try to review the terms on which they could be engaged under this agreement,” Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, according to the WSJ.
<h2>False Hopes?</h2>
Many celebrated this supposed interest in working with the Paris deal. Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna even sent a statement to the WSJ saying they were pleased the U.S. continues to &#8220;engage and recognize&#8221; the importance of clean energy and and the <a href="https://futurism.com/renewable-energy-isnt-just-cutting-costs-its-saving-lives/" target="_blank">economic opportunities of clean growth</a>.
The White House responded with an <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/16/politics/trump-paris-climate-deal/index.html">official statement</a> on Saturday afternoon:
&#8220;There has been no change in the U.S.’s position on the Paris agreement,” deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said. “As the president has made abundantly clear, the U.S. is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favorable to our country.”
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&#8220;For anyone who had any hope that two historically devastating storms striking our nation would wake up the Trump Administration to the reality of the climate crisis, think again,&#8221; Sierra Club global climate policy director John Coequyt <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/16/politics/trump-paris-climate-deal/index.html" target="_blank">told </a><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/16/politics/trump-paris-climate-deal/index.html" target="_blank">CNN </a>— referring to the <a href="https://futurism.com/hurricane-harvey-is-over-but-the-public-health-impact-is-just-beginning/">back-to-back hurricanes</a> that devastated Texas and Florida just last week.
Yet despite this statement, some officials say there is an on-going discussion regarding new carbon emissions targets for the U.S. — which one of the participants at the Montreal meeting confirmed. Deal or no deal, though, U.S. carbon emissions and temperatures are expected to go lower in the coming years, as <a href="https://futurism.com/today-california-will-vote-on-a-bill-pushing-for-100-renewable-energy-by-2045/" target="_blank">several states ramp up</a> their dependence on renewable energy sources.
At any rate, we will probably know in the coming week where the U.S. really stands on the Paris deal, as climate ministers from over a dozen large-economy countries meet with U.S. National Economic Council head Gary Cohn in New York.

Is the Trump Administration changing its mind about the Paris Climate Agreement?

Mixed reports flooded newsrooms on Saturday, with the Wall Street Journal claiming the White House is reconsidering its position on the Paris Accords.

Is the Trump Administration Changing Its Mind About the Paris Climate Agreement?

A Wall Street Journal report claims the White House is reconsidering its position on the Paris Climate Agreement. The administration has denied the report. 

<h2>Protecting the Protector</h2>
The <a href="http://ozone.unep.org/en/treaties-and-decisions/montreal-protocol-substances-deplete-ozone-layer">Montreal Protocol of 1987 </a>called upon the world to control the production and use of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) in order to protect the ozone layer—which is our very own protection from high levels of ultraviolet rays from the sun.
Nearly 30 years after <a href="https://futurism.com/politics-helps-ozone-layer-recover/">the whole world joined forces to address the threat</a> brought about by the thinning ozone layer, <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/signs-healing-antarctic-ozone-layer-0630">scientists at MIT confirm</a> that the hole over Antarctica is starting to heal.
&#8220;We can now be confident that the things we’ve done have put the planet on a path to heal,&#8221; said MIT lead researcher Susan Solomon, who also happens to be the first to distinguish the conditions of temperature and sunlight under which chlorine could eat away at the ozone layer, back in 1986.
&nbsp;
They found evidence that the September ozone hole has shrunken by over 4 million square kilometers since. The world’s efforts to reverse the damage are showing promising results, and that is despite some setbacks caused by sulfur dioxide from volcanic eruptions.
In 2015, the hole reached a record size, which had scientists puzzled. This paper analyzed and made sense of the factors that contributed to that incident.
“Why I like this paper so much is, nature threw us a curveball in 2015,” says Ross Salawitch, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Maryland. “People thought we set a record for the depth of the ozone hole in October 2015. The Solomon paper explains it was due to a specific volcanic eruption. So without this paper, if all we had was the data, we would be scratching our heads — what was going on in 2015?”
The team measured “fingerprints” and found a substantial decline in atmospheric chlorine from <a href="http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/hats/publictn/elkins/cfcs.html">chlorofluorocarbons </a>(CFCs), which are ozone-depleting substances emitted through old dry cleaning methods, refrigerators, and aerosols.
<figure style="width: 186px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img 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" alt="Aerosol sprays contain CFCs." width="186" height="271" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Aerosol sprays contain CFCs.</figcaption></figure>
&#8220;It showed we can actually see a chemical fingerprint, which is sensitive to the levels of chlorine, finally emerging as a sign of recovery,&#8221; said one of the researchers, Diane Ivy.
<h2>Not a Time for Complacency</h2>
&#8220;This is a reminder that when the world gets together, we really can solve environmental problems,&#8221; Solomon said. &#8220;I think we should all congratulate ourselves on a job well done.&#8221;
The hole is estimated to be completely and permanently closed by 2050, provided the world keeps progress steady.
&nbsp;

Scientists from MIT confirm that the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica has shrunken by about 4 million square kilometers. This proves that the worldwide boycott of CFCs is yielding positive results, seen almost 30 years after the Montreal Protocol of 1987.

/Montreal Protocol

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