The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken
The claim was that the ozone hole was going to cause skin cancer in Australia by allowing too much ultra-violet light through the atmosphere.
27 Jul 1989, 7 – Marshfield News-Herald at Newspapers.com
There are lots of problems with this claim.
First problem is that the ozone hole never extends beyond Antarctica, and only appears in the winter, when there isn’t any sunlight. Ozone is created in the upper atmosphere by sunlight. You can’t get skin cancer from sunlight during times when the sun isn’t shining. As soon as the sun comes back out over Antarctica, the ozone hole disappears. How are people in Australia going to get skin cancer from an ozone hole thousands of miles away during winter when the sun is low in the sky?
Second problem is that the ozone hole size varies tremendously from year to year, despite relatively steady levels of CFC’s in the atmosphere. It is quite clear that CFC’s are not the controlling factor.
Climate Prediction Center – Stratosphere: SBUV-2 Total Ozone – Ozone Hole
Just like the global warming scam, the ozone hole scam was another opportunity for government to tax and control, and another opportunity for scientists to imagine themselves saving the planet.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
H. L. Mencken
