Emissions of one of the chemicals most responsible for the Antarctic ozone hole are on the rise, despite an international treaty that required an end to its production in 2010, a new study by researchers at NOAA and their colleagues shows . Trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) is the second-most abundant ozone-depleting gas in the atmosphere and a member of the family of chemicals most responsible for the giant hole in the ozone layer that forms over Antarctica each September. Once widely used as a foaming agent, production of CFC-11 was phased out by the Montreal Protocol in 2010. The new study, published in Nature , documents an unexpected increase in emissions of this gas, likely from new, unreported production. We’re raising a flag to the global community to say, “This is what’s going on, and it is taking us away from timely recovery from ozone depletion.” Further work is needed to […]