Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!vicorp!jmethot
From: jmethot@vicorp.com (John Methot)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Ozone and the shuttle
Summary: Reasoned responses, please?
Message-ID: <1991Apr15.142006.6471@vicorp.com>
Date: 15 Apr 91 14:20:06 GMT
References: <1991Apr12.163103.11472@welch.jhu.edu> <3162@borg.cs.unc.edu>
Reply-To: jmethot@vicorp.UUCP (John Methot)
Organization: V. I. Corporation, Northampton, Massachusetts
Lines: 43

In article <3162@borg.cs.unc.edu> leech@homer.cs.unc.edu (Jonathan Leech) writes:
>In article <1991Apr12.163103.11472@welch.jhu.edu>, jimh@welch.jhu.edu (Jim Hoffman) writes:
>> I have heard some rumors that the shuttle has caused more damage to the ozone
>> layer than all of the CFCs combined.
>
>    You're not the only one hearing rumors.  The following is taken
>from "Censored Stories of the Year," ...
>
>    #4 on the list this year is:
>   "NASA Shuttles destroy the ozone shield.
>     (SSU Star, Earth Island Journal, San Francisco Chronicle)
>
>    ...each time a U.S. space shuttle is launched, 187 tons of
>    ozone-eating molecules are released into the atmosphere...
>    ... a single shuttle flight can destroy up to 10 million
>    tons of ozone.  It would take only 300 shuttle flights to
>    completely destroy the ozone.
>
>    ...claims by Dr.  Helen Caldicott...that ``with each launch,
>    25 percent of the ozone is destroyed.  So far the space shuttle
>    has destroyed 10 percent of the ozone.''

A typo in Mr. Leech's transcription of this story makes these claims sound
ridiculous.  The story I read said "with each launch, .25 percent..."

>    Lenny Siegel of the SF-based Military Toxics Network...said
>    a single launch of the space shuttle damaged the ozone layer of
>    the atmosphere as much as an entire year of industrial emissions
>    of CFCs from a single factory.

While I would call myself an environmentalist, I do believe in little
things like logic and fact.  What kind of factory?  Producing what and
how much?  This statement makes no sense without that information.

>    In the absence of reviewed research, I think this is all a bunch
>of hooey.  The Shuttle may well damage the ozone layer but not
>severely or over a long period.  187 tons/flight I might believe.

I've been an advocate of space exploration all my life, so like most readers
of this group I have a bias toward backing space exploration programs.  I
would, however, like to see responses to this story from people who work
in the field - not just "Who are these loonies - it can't be true" knee-jerk
reaction.