Not out of the hole yet

We all thought the ozone problem was solved – right? Wrong.

Earlier this month, while the nation’s attention was focused on the midterm elections, the Bush administration won approval from an international body to begin production of thousands of tons of methyl bromide, an ozone-depleting pesticide.

Why produce more of an ozone-destroying chemical when the ozone hole is larger than ever? In applying for “critical use” status for continued production of the chemical in agriculture, the Bush administration has argued that a suitable replacement for methyl bromide has not been found.

Yet the Associated Press reported Nov. 4 that “many farmers have switched to other pesticides,” resulting in “a 75 percent reduction in methyl bromide levels since 1991” worldwide. Despite this and recent revelations that we have 11,000 tons of the stuff already stockpiled, the U.S. has been allowed to produce 5,900 tons more.

The Bush administration argued that because the U.S. stockpile existed before a 2005 ban on methyl bromide took effect, it doesn’t apply under the ban’s definition of “existing, available” stockpiles that would ordinarily prevent an exemption from being granted. (I know – my mind hurts too.)

This is not to say that the Bush administration’s policy has ever been anything other than one that seeks to gut environmental regulations of any force or meaning, but this tortured logic certainly sets a milestone.And it’s especially disconcerting given these facts:

 The ozone hole is larger than ever. In October, NASA announced that during the last week of September, the ozone hole set a record for average area – 10.6 million square miles, an area larger than the continent of North America. Not only that, but the concentration of ozone reached a record low in a larger swath of the lower stratosphere – the part of the atmosphere where depletion normally occurs – than previously observed.

 Methyl bromide is 60 times as harmful as CFCs. According to a technical report released in August by the UN Environmental Program and World Meteorological Organization, the bromine in methyl bromide destroys 60 times more ozone per atom than the chlorine in CFCs.

 Global warming will make it worse. The same “greenhouse effect” that warms the troposphere, the part of the atmosphere closest to earth, cools the stratosphere, where ozone forms. Ozone thrives in warmer temperatures and dissipates in cooler ones. The ozone hole shrank briefly in 2002, for example, because of unusually warm temperatures in the stratosphere.

Europe, too, has been experiencing “mini-holes” of thinning ozone that have increased UV exposure on some days by 20 to 30 percent, according to a 2002 European Space Agency press release, raising health concerns.

Many of the arguments we heard against banning CFCs in the 1970s are the same we’re hearing now against doing anything about global warming – chief among them that there are natural cycles involved. While that is true, these gases persist in the atmosphere for decades, even centuries after they have been emitted, altering the chemistry of the atmosphere with very real and observable effects.

We need to make sure our leaders understand the urgency with which these issues must be dealt. And now that Democrats hold the majority in both houses of Congress – together with some reasonable Republicans who might be needed to overcome a presidential veto – we just might be able to do something about it.