Scientists say the ozone layer is recovering
Pistorius can’t be found guilty of murder, judge says
WASHINGTON — Earth’s protective ozone layer is beginning to recover, largely because of the phaseout since the 1980s of certain chemicals used in refrigerants and aerosol cans, a U.N. scientific panel reported this week in a rare piece of good news about the health of the planet.
Scientists said Wednesday that the development demonstrates that when the world comes together, it can counteract a brewing ecological crisis.
For the first time in 35 years, scientists were able to confirm a statistically significant and sustained increase in stratospheric ozone, which shields the planet from solar radiation that causes skin cancer, crop damage and other problems.
From 2000 to 2013, ozone levels climbed 4 percent in the key mid-northern latitudes at about 30 miles up, said NASA scientist Paul Newman. He co-chaired the every-four-years ozone assessment by 300 scientists, released at the United Nations.
“It’s a victory for diplomacy and for science and for the fact that we were able to work together,” said chemist Mario Molina. In 1974, Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland wrote a scientific study forecasting the ozone depletion problem. They won the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work.
RAISING ALARM
The ozone layer had been thinning since the late 1970s. Man-made chlorofluorocarbons, called CFCs, released chlorine and bromine, which destroyed ozone molecules high in the air. After scientists raised the alarm, countries around the world agreed to a treaty in 1987 that phased out CFCs. Levels of those chemicals between 30 and 50 miles up are decreasing.
The United Nations calculated in an earlier report that without the pact, by 2030 there would have been an extra 2 million skin cancer cases a year around the world.
Paradoxically, heat-trapping greenhouse gases — considered the major cause of global warming — are also helping to rebuild the ozone layer, Newman said. The report said rising levels of carbon dioxide and other gases cool the upper stratosphere, and the cooler air increases the amount of ozone.
And in another worrisome trend, the chemicals that replaced CFCs contribute to global warming and are on the rise, said MIT atmospheric scientist Susan Solomon. At the moment, they don’t make much of a dent, but they are expected to increase dramatically by 2050 and make “a big contribution” to global warming.
FAR FROM HEALED
The ozone layer is still far from healed. The longlasting, ozone-eating chemicals still lingering in the atmosphere create a yearly fall ozone hole above the extreme Southern Hemisphere, and the hole hasn’t closed up. Also, the ozone layer is still about 6 percent thinner than in 1980, by Newman’s calculations.
Ozone levels are “on the upswing, but it’s not there yet,” he said.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, said there are encouraging signs that the ozone layer “is on track to recovery by the middle of this century.”
Steiner called the effort to get rid of ozone-destroying substances “one of the great success stories of international collective action in addressing a global environmental change phenomenon.”
“More than 98 percent of the ozone-depleting substances agreed over time have actually been phased out,” he said. If not for such efforts, Steiner said, “we would be seeing a very substantial global ozone depletion today.”
Paul Wapner, a professor of global environmental politics at American University, said the findings are “good news in an often dark landscape” and send a message of hope to world leaders meeting later this month in New York for a U.N. climate summit.
“The precedent is truly important because society is facing another serious global environmental problem, namely climate change,” said Molina, a professor in San Diego and Mexico City. The 71-year-old scientist said he didn’t think he would live to see the day that the ozone layer was rebuilding.
Earlier this week, the United Nations announced that atmospheric levels of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, surged to another record high in 2013. The increase from 2012 was the biggest jump in three decades.
PRETORIA, South Africa — The judge in Oscar Pistorius’ trial ruled out a murder conviction for the double-amputee Olympian on Thursday in the shooting death of his girlfriend but said he was negligent, raising the possibility he’ll be convicted of culpable homicide.
The verdict in the case that has riveted much of South Africa and the world is expected on Friday when Judge Thokozile Masipa reconvenes the judgment phase, climaxing the trial that began in March.
If Pistorius is acquitted of murder, he could still be sent to jail for a maximum of 15 years if convicted of culpable homicide or negligent killing, although five years in prison is a guideline when a firearm is used.
The red-robed Masipa, sitting in the dais and looking down at Pistorius and the packed courtroom, said she felt Pistorius acted negligently when he fired four times through a toilet door in his home in the predawn hours of Valentine’s Day last year. In a moment of highdrama, Masipa then stopped reading out her verdict in the six-month-long trial and adjourned until Friday.
Because there is no trial by jury in South Africa, Masipa is expected to explain exactly why she and her two legal aides came to the decision they have before the judge issues the verdict.
“I am of the view that the accused acted too hastily and with excessive force,” Masipa said of Pistorius’ actions on the fatal night.
She said the prosecution had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Pistorius committed premeditated murder. She also ruled out a lesser murder charge. As she indicated that Pistorius would likely be cleared of murder, Pistorius began sobbing quietly on the wooden bench, his shoulders shaking.
The world-famous athlete has acknowledged firing the shots through the toilet door in his home, hitting Steenkamp in the head, arm and hip area with hollow-point bullets from his 9 mm pistol. He said he mistook her for an intruder and denied murder, but the judge said Pistorius still could have taken other action, like calling the police or security at his housing estate.
“Did the accused fail to take steps he should have taken? Yes,” Masipa said. “He failed to take any steps to avoid the death.”
The prosecution alleged that the athlete intentionally killed his girlfriend, a model and budding reality TV star, after a loud nighttime argument heard by neighbors. Masipa said there were “just not enough facts” to support the finding of premeditated murder or the lesser murder without pre-planning.
“The accused cannot be found guilty of murder,” the judge said.
At the start of the judgment hearing, Masipa told Pistorius, 27, that he should remain seated on the bench while she read her findings out and until she asked him to stand for the verdict.
In her hours-long assessment of witness evidence, she called Pistorius a “very poor witness” who had lost his composure on the stand and was at times “evasive.” But Masipa emphasized that did not mean he was guilty of murder.
The 66-year-old judge also cast doubt on witness accounts of hearing a woman’s screams, a key part of the prosecution’s case. The defense had argued that it was Pistorius who was screaming in a high-pitched voice after discovering he had fatally shot Steenkamp.
Masipa also cited testimony of an acoustics expert called by the defense, saying it cast “serious doubt” on whether witnesses who were hundreds of yards away in their homes — as some state witnesses were — could have differentiated between the screams of a man or a woman.
At one point, Masipa said: “I continue to explain why most witnesses got their facts wrong.”
Masipa also said she was disregarding text messages between Steenkamp and Pistorius that had been entered as evidence. Prosecutors had submitted text messages that showed tension between them while the defense submitted messages that indicated mutual affection. That evidence, the judge said, doesn’t prove anything.
“Normal relationships are dynamic and unpredictable most of the time, while human beings are fickle,” she said.
Pistorius faced 25 years to life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder. He also faced a minimum of 15 years in jail if found guilty of murder without pre-planning.
Pistorius is charged with murder, two counts of unlawfully firing a gun in a public place in unrelated incidents and one count of illegal possession of ammunition.
Before Thursday’s session began, Pistorius hugged his brother Carl, who was seated in a wheelchair because of leg injuries suffered in a recent car crash. The parents of Steenkamp were also in the packed gallery. Other members of Pistorius’ family, including his father Henke, sat behind him.
If Pistorius is convicted on any charge, the case will be postponed until a later sentencing hearing.