Someone, somewhere, is making a banned chemical that destroys the ozone layer, scientists suspect
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/05/16/someone-somewhere-is-making-a-banned-chemical-that-destroys-the-ozon
Emissions of #CFC-11 have climbed 25 percent since 2012, despite the chemical being part of a group of #ozone pollutants that were phased out under the 1987 Montreal Protocol.
“I’ve been making these measurements for more than 30 years, and this is the most surprising thing I’ve seen,” said Stephen Montzka, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who led the work. “I was astounded by it, really.”
[...] The finding seems likely to prompt an international investigation into the mysterious source.
An unexpected and persistent increase in global emissions of ozone-depleting CFC-11
►https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0106-2
Here we show that the rate of decline of atmospheric CFC-11 concentrations observed at remote measurement sites was constant from 2002 to 2012, and then slowed by about 50 per cent after 2012. [...] A simple model analysis of our findings suggests an increase in CFC-11 emissions of 13 ± 5 gigagrams per year (25 ± 13 per cent) since 2012, despite reported production being close to zero since 2006.
