Hope to change behavior and the climate situation.
The Montreal Protocol, which made it possible to fight against the hole in the ozone layer, also made it possible to prevent an additional warming of the planet of 2.5 ° C by 2100 thanks to the banning of certain types of aerosols, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal
Nature
.
Global warming caused by greenhouse gases, currently around 1.1 ° C compared to the pre-industrial period, is already causing its share of disasters, deadly floods, heat waves, fires, hurricanes ...
The warming could have reached 4 ° C
The Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987 to phase out CFC gases (used in refrigeration and aerosols), responsible for the famous "hole" in this gaseous layer protecting the Earth from rays that cause skin cancer, eye damage and immune.
Without it, global warming would reach 4 ° C, even if States managed to limit the rise in the thermometer linked to other gases below 1.5 ° C, one of the objectives of the Paris Agreement, according to this study.
In addition to attacking the ozone layer, CFC gases are indeed powerful greenhouse gases that retain heat up to 10,000 times more than carbon dioxide (CO2).
The researchers, led by Paul Young of Lancaster University, have discovered via models that the capacity of plants to store CO2 has been seriously degraded by products that also affect the ozone layer.
“A world where these chemicals increased and continued to remove the protective ozone layer would have been catastrophic for human health,” says Paul Young, “but also for vegetation”
Good news for trees, therefore, but also hope for possible changes to limit the effects of global warming.
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