Flashback 2007: Scientists Reveal They ‘No Longer Understand How Ozone Holes Come Into Being’

Ozone Measurement Error ‘Shatters’ Established Theory

It was 10 years ago this month that scientists revealed an order-of-magnitude-sized error in molecular chemistry measurement that threatened to severely undermine the commonly accepted explanation for how ozone depletion occurs.

The iconoclastic discovery fomented “much debate and uncertainty in the ozone research community.”    The mechanism that causes polar ozone destruction had, with one measurement, become more “unknown” than known.

With the stunning new evidence, a leading ozone researcher proclaimed that “Our understanding of chloride chemistry has really been blown apart.”

But then, in the ensuing months and years after the measurement error had been exposed, there was . . . silence.

Rarely, if ever, was this discovery of a molecular rate change “substantially [ten times] lower than previously thought” brought to the public’s attention again.  Ostensibly because of a lack of appetite for admitting they may be wrong, scientists just seemed to . . . move on.

The 1980’s zeitgeist that insisted we humans are the predominant cause of ozone depletion due to our ozone-depleting substance emissions has been maintained for more than three decades now despite a growing body of contrary evidence that says variations in ozone density are predominantly determined by natural phenomena (meteorology, volcanic eruptions), not human emissions.

The ozone “hole” narrative and the widely-held perception that governmental policies determine how small or large the “hole” gets would appear to be analogous to the current climate debate and its connection to the governmental push to dramatically limit CO2 emissions.

Read more at No Tricks Zone