Northeast China Made a Lot More Ozone-Destroying Gas

Researchers used high-frequency atmospheric observations from Gosan, South Korea, and Hateruma, Japan, and global monitoring data and atmospheric chemical transport model simulations to determine that manufacturers in northeastern China increased production of ozone-destroying CFCs by about 7000 tons per year from 2014 to 2017.

Emissions from eastern mainland China are 7000 tons per year higher in 2014–2017 than in 2008–2012. The increase in emissions was primarily around the northeastern provinces of Shandong and Hebei. This increase accounts for a substantial fraction (at least 40 to 60 percent) of the global rise in CFC-11 emissions.

They use the banned product because it has better quality and a cheaper price. Factories were either producing the gas in secret and others do it openly and have it ignored by the local government.

Nature – Increase in CFC-11 emissions from eastern China based on atmospheric observations

15 thoughts on “Northeast China Made a Lot More Ozone-Destroying Gas”

  1. My mother always told me to go play outside because it was healthier.

    Instead I spend a lot of time in front of a computer in a climate controlled room (albeit, with a very nice view of a shaded garden).

    Hmm.

  2. Australia and New Zealand have very high natural levels of UV in sunshine, and a lot of the population is descended from northern European stock, with pale skins to maximise vitamin D from those cloudy climes. We have the highest rate of skin cancer deaths anywhere, and the ozone hole has been making it worse. Ozone is destroyed over Antarctica during the winter, and in spring, the hole breaks up, with ozone-depleted heading north. They give a UV level warning with the weather forecast, on bad days.

  3. I’m shocked it took this long for the Chinese to dump CFCs.

    Paging everyone who things China is a nation of super geniuses…

  4. For what it’s worth, CFCs were first conceived by Thomas Midgley who also had the bright idea to put lead into gasoline and, when he had polio, invented an elaborate contraption of strings and pulleys to assist him in getting out of bed. Said contraption malfunctioned one day and killed him. Given his… ahem… track record for inventions it might be best to remain wary of CFCs (lol)

  5. I wouldn’t sweat it. The Ozone hole was found the very first time anybody looked, and for all we know has been present for thousands of years prior to the invention of freon. And it’s dependent on conditions found only at the poles, ozone destruction mediated by high altitude CO2 crystals can’t happen anywhere else on Earth.

  6. Probably not as much as the US president John F Kennedy.

    (No, seriously, the abandonment of hats as normal dress was said to have been sparked by JFK not wearing a hat in public.)

  7. Who exactly is surprised upon hearing that China dumped CFCs in to the atmosphere and set the ozone hole back a decade?

  8. Does the increase in CFCs and resultant UV rays account for the increase in skin cancers worldwide?

  9. great. that’s all I needed is to now worry about another existential threat that I thought was an already solved issue.

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