Another gas condemned

Soon there won't be any gases left which aren't "pollutants" or in some other way deemed "harmful" for the environment. In a weird throwback to the 1980s, the ABC runs a story on the depletion of the ozone layer. So get out your Aviator sunnies, put on an episode of Miami Vice and enjoy:

New research shows that nitrous oxide, also known as happy gas, is now the most abundant ozone-depleting substance in the atmosphere.

A paper published in the journal Science reveals the increasing levels of the gas will cause more damage to the ozone layer than the more commonly known chloroflourocarbons (CFCs).

The research found emissions of nitrous oxide are now present in such large amounts that it will remain the most damaging ozone-depleting substance throughout the 21st century.

Dr A Ravishankara from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says an international treaty has stemmed the use of CFCs, but nitrous oxide is still not regulated. [Give it time, give it time - Ed]

"Currently ozone depletion in the stratosphere is largely due to the chlorofluorocarbons that have been already put in the atmosphere," he said.

"But if you continue to put nitrous oxide it will contribute more and more to the ozone layer depletion in the future."

Maybe they should regulate oxygen next, that evil, harmful gas without which bush fires would be so much less intense. Each person is entitled to their own allowance of oxygen each day, and if they use it up too quickly, they will have to purchase oxygen credits in order to, er, stay alive.

Read it here.