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- <text id=93TT1525>
- <title>
- Apr. 26, 1993: Save the Ozone!
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Apr. 26, 1993 The Truth about Dinosaurs
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 16
- HEALTH & SCIENCE
- Save the Ozone!
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Man-made chemicals keep dissolving earth's shield against UV
- rays
- </p>
- <p> Production of cfcs--the chemicals that attack earth's
- precious atmospheric ozone layer and are being phased out by
- international agreement--is falling even faster than expected.
- That's the good news. The bad news is that cfcs already released
- are still drifting up through the atmosphere. New satellite
- data, reported in the current Nature, show that ozone levels
- over some northern parts of Canada, Scandinavia and Russia were
- 10% lower this winter than they were just one year ago.
- </p>
- <p> Since ozone loss can increase the amount of ultraviolet
- radiation reaching earth's surface, the risk of skin cancer may
- be rising in northern latitudes, as it probably is in
- southernmost climes. Scientists hope the level of cfcs in the
- upper atmosphere will peak around the year 2000 and then
- diminish. What they don't know is how much ozone will be left,
- whether the areas of severe ozone depletion will expand toward
- population centers, and how dangerous a 21st century day in the
- sun will be.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-