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From: "Chuck & Linda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 15:34:30 -0500
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [helpinghands] FW: [sustaindane] Impacts of Ozone Hole and Global Warming over Chile
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Subject: Ozone hole: children in Chile
Pullquote: " 'It's very sad," says Eduardo Mortiric, a 15-year-old with
pale skin
and cheeks so sun-kissed it looks like he has rouge on. "I can't go
outside and ride my bike, play soccer anymore or go walking. I burn
easily.
"Welcome to life in Punta Arenas in the ozone depletion age. "
******************************************************
> Life under the hole in the sky
>
> For the people of southern Chile, ozone depletion isn't a political
> issue -- it's a nightmarish reality. A report from the globe's
> ecological future.
> - - - - - - - - - - - -
> By Dawn MacKeen (Salon)
>
> Nov. 03, 2000 | PUNTA ARENAS, Chile -- Below an expansive sky that
> stretches on forever, hundreds of 4-year-olds tucked into puffy
> winter coats hold hands and file eagerly into an elementary school
> auditorium. Though it is barely 45 degrees outside, the preschoolers
> are here to learn about the dangers of the sun.
>
> Paul the Penguin, a 7-foot-tall mascot, appears onstage accompanied
> by two friends in beach clothes. They warn him that the sun will
> turn
> his skin red but that if he douses himself in Eucerin sunblock, he
> can play outdoors as long as he likes. After the show, the
> preschoolers line up once again, giggling and squealing, to receive
> free trial-sized bottles of Eucerin, courtesy of the cosmetic
> company
> that makes it. As they grab their gifts and file out, they look like
> giggling children anywhere -- even though they're not.
>
> The festive setting, complete with beach balls sporting Eucerin's
> name in big black letters, belies the grim reason they have all
> gathered. Like the "duck-and-cover" classroom exercises during the
> Cuban missile crisis, and Los Angeles' smog alerts in the 1980s,
> which cautioned students not to go outside when pollution levels
> were
> high, today's presentation is teaching a generation of kids in the
> southern tip of Chile how to accept the unacceptable -- how to
> survive under the expanding ozone hole the rest of the world has
> created.
>
> "It's very sad," says Eduardo Mortiric, a 15-year-old with pale skin
> and cheeks so sun-kissed it looks like he has rouge on. "I can't go
> outside and ride my bike, play soccer anymore or go walking. I burn
> easily."
>
> Welcome to life in Punta Arenas in the ozone depletion age.
>
> This port city of 120,000 people, at 53 degrees south latitude, has
> always been known more for its proximity to other places -- five
> hours from Patagonia's Torres del Paine, an hour from a penguin
> colony, a boat ride to Antarctica -- than as a destination in its
> own
> right. But as ground zero of a global ecological catastrophe, Punta
> Arenas is becoming famous, or infamous, as the city that has
> squatted
> directly under the gaping hole in the earth's ozone layer. What's
> happening down here on the edge of nowhere is an uncontrolled
> science
> experiment: exposing human beings in their natural habitat to
> long-term doses of potentially deadly ultraviolet radiation.
>
> It may take years before the results are in, before we know the full
> toll in vision problems and skin cancers, illness and death. Until
> now the rest of the world has watched from afar, complacent in the
> conviction that it has largely addressed the problem. But it might
> be
> a good idea to pay closer attention to what happens down here,
> because scientists fear that -- in the future -- regions farther
> from
> the poles could be hit by a thinning of the ozone layer.
>
> Contradictions abound in this small city. On many days in September
> and October -- the spring months when the ozone layer is at its
> thinnest -- Punta Arenas officials warn residents to stay inside
> between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. or risk a severe sunburn. Yet most don't
> listen. The regional health minister in charge of disseminating this
> advice to the public appears at official events with a deep tan from
> a recent skiing trip. People here complain about the ecological
> disaster the rest of the world has inflicted on them -- then they
> complain that foreign visitors draw too much attention to the
> problem. Doctors warn patients of the need to wear protective hats
> sturdy enough to withstand the powerful wind down here -- but know
> that the gear must be attractive enough so fashion-minded Chileans
> will actually wear them. Officials acknowledge the critical need to
> address the problem -- but claim they won't be able to afford
> $180,000 for an ozone- and radiation-measuring instrument after
> Punta
> Arenas scientists return the only one they have later this month to
> the institute in Brazil from which they borrowed it.
>
> And Punta Arenas is where Beiersdorf, a German cosmetics company,
> markets itself by sponsoring a play for preschoolers featuring an
> adorable penguin who slathers the firm's sunblock over himself from
> head to web.
>
> Though scientists once thought they had a handle on the problem, the
> ozone hole reached its largest dimensions yet in September,
> stretching across an area of 11 million square miles -- a distance
> three times the size of the United States. And it has subsequently
> wandered all the way from its icy seasonal home of Antarctica to
> this
> port city. In Punta Arenas, according to local measurements, the
> residents are exposed to levels of UVB radiation 40 percent greater
> than normal when the ozone hole is above.
>
> The worsening situation has so alarmed Chilean officials that, for
> the first time ever, they are demanding help from the international
> community to help finance research on the effects of ozone depletion
> on ecosystems and human health. Chile's ambassador to the United
> Nations, Juan Gabriel Valdes, is addressing the U.N. General
> Assembly
> on the issue this month.
>
> But Chilean officials are concerned because asking for assistance
> affronts their pride and sense of self-sufficiency. "I am not like
> the guy in 'Jerry Maguire,' saying, 'Show me the money! Show me the
> money!'" says Rodrigo Alvarez, a congressman for the Magallanes
> region, where Punta Arenas is located. "This is a problem that we
> didn't create. There is an international responsibility to this
> southern region -- Australia, Argentina, Chile. The [ozone hole] was
> created by the whole world."
>
> The ozone layer lies in the stratosphere more than 10 miles above
> the
> Earth's surface. Because it absorbs most of the sun's sometimes
> deadly, DNA-destroying ultraviolet B radiation, or UVB, it enabled
> life as we know it to thrive on earth. "It's like a bulletproof vest
> -- if you start thinning out the lead, you let more bullets
> through,"
> says Ed DeFabo, research professor of dermatology at George
> Washington University Medical Center and chairman of the
> International Arctic Science Committee's panel that examines the
> impacts of increased UVB radiation.
>
> Scientists discovered the hole in the ozone layer -- more
> accurately,
> a thinning of the layer -- in 1982. They linked it to the widespread
> use of manmade chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and
> hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) in such products as aerosol sprays,
> refrigerants and solvents. Once released, these substances rise to
> the stratosphere, where the sunlight causes them to break apart into
> chlorine and other elements. In the Southern Hemisphere, the
> depletion occurs largely in the spring because rising temperatures
> and the presence of ice crystals atop the polar stratospheric clouds
> facilitate complex chemical reactions between ozone molecules and
> the
> CFC and HCFC components.
>
> In 1997, more than 140 countries signed the Montreal Protocol, in
> which they agreed to phase out the use of these chemicals. However,
> because the CFCs and HCFCs can take years to rise high enough to
> start causing the damage, scientists believe that it will be decades
> before the ozone layer can replenish itself and return to normal.
>
> More recently, however, evidence has mounted that global warming,
> not
> just the CFCs and HCFCs, can also cause ozone depletion. Virtually
> all members of the reputable scientific community believe that much
> of the current trend of global warming can be attributed to human
> use
> of non-renewable sources of energy. And they believe that many of
> the
> bizarre ecological and climatic phenomena of the past few years --
> the record high temperatures and the shrinking of the polar ice
> caps,
> for example -- can be attributed to global warming.
>
> The situation is not likely to improve any time soon. According to a
> report released recently by the United Nations Intergovernmental
> Panel on Climate Change, average global temperatures could rise as
> much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. That also means
> that ozone depletion could get worse -- much worse -- before it gets
> better.
>
> "This could mean a truly torrid world in many areas and frightful
> extremes of weather," says Arjun Makhijani, president of the
> Maryland-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.
>
> So far the problem has mostly affected large swaths of the Southern
> Hemisphere. In some ways the situation might ultimately be worse in
> places like Australia and New Zealand, where higher temperatures
> prompt people to spend more time outdoors wearing far fewer clothes.
> But some researchers ominously predict "ozone hole creep" as the
> century progresses. Jonathan Shanklin, one of the scientists who
> discovered the Antarctic hole, announced just last week that a
> second
> hole above the Arctic, which has generally been smaller than the one
> over the southern pole, could grow to the same size by 2020 because
> of global warming.
>
> Some scientists also fear that there could be increased ozone
> thinning across the globe, not just at the poles. This could be
> particularly dangerous for places like Miami and San Diego, since
> regions closer to the equator already experience relatively high
> natural levels of UVB radiation even without ozone depletion. But
> double doses from a thinning ozone layer could push these sun-belt
> cities well into the danger zone.
>
> Given the stark differences in environmental policy between the two
> presidential candidates, next week's election could have a
> significant impact on the situation. Though President George Bush
> memorably mocked Al Gore as "Ozone Man" during the 1992 campaign
> because of Gore's long-standing interest in the environment, the
> fate
> of the ozone layer itself has not been an issue in the current
> presidential race. But global warming has entered the debate.
>
> Gore has pledged to sign the 1997 Kyoto Treaty, which calls for
> countries to reduce their use of fossil fuel to stem global warming
> and is the subject of a gathering of world leaders in The Hague
> later
> this month. Texas Gov. George W. Bush opposes the treaty and
> maintains -- against virtually all the available evidence -- that
> the
> jury is still out on the causes and impact of global warming.
>
> Far from the rhetoric of Washington and the presidential campaign,
> Nelson Paredes sits behind the registration desk at Punta Arenas'
> public hospital on this frigid Sunday afternoon. Paredes, the
> hospital supplies manager, needs no words to describe how harsh the
> sun's springtime dose has become. His face reads like a textbook on
> the current state of the environment in Punta Arenas.
>
> Paredes looks older than his 48 years. His face is blotchy, like a
> ragged quilt with interlocking patches of natural coffee-colored
> skin
> and big, white scars. He explains that one sunny day last October,
> he
> attended a sports event and stood outside for four hours. That night
> he could feel "despidir" -- fire -- on his face. "I was surprised
> because that night I couldn't open my eyes, they were so inflamed,"
> he says. "Nothing like this ever happened before."
>
> Though the pain lasted for three months and the effects of the burn
> remain highly visible today, Paredes, like many residents here, does
> not always remember to put on his protective lotion. Nor does he
> keep
> up with the official day-to-day media alerts about levels of
> radiation. On this particular afternoon, he explained as music
> blared
> in the background, he had forgotten to look at the newspaper that
> morning and, once at work, was caught up listening to the radio.
>
> When he got sunburned last year, Paredes sought out Dr. Jaime
> Abarca,
> a dermatologist at the public hospital in Punta Arenas. Paredes was
> one of 31 patients who came to him with sunburns last year. In the
> previous 13 years, says Dr. Abarca, only one person would generally
> arrive each season with a sunburn. "It's a fact that not only here
> in
> Punta Arenas but in the rest of the world, we are going to have more
> skin cancer due to the ozone depletion," Dr. Abarca says. "That's
> what happens after about 50 years of intermittent severe exposures
> to
> the sun."
>
> The sun's touch in Punta Arenas feels gracious, not harsh, but its
> aftereffects are punishing. Though I have slathered myself with SPF
> 45 constantly since I arrived here, after two days my cheeks are
> slightly sunburned. I don't need to worry about the rest of my body,
> since I am covered from head to toe in winter wear. The cold was
> once
> considered a curse down here, but now people are grateful for it,
> since it forces them to cover up just to survive the temperatures.
> Now their clothes also help to protect them against the harmful
> effects of ozone depletion.
>
> UVB is known to affect the skin, eyes and immune system, but there
> is
> no immunologist in town. And the local health minister, Lidia
> Amarales, has been granted scarce resources -- just $30,000 a year
> from the regional government -- to educate people about the problem.
> "It is impossible to give the sun cream to everyone in Punta Arenas
> because it's expensive," says Amarales. "We have other priorities,
> like cancer, diabetes, hypertension, adolescent and mental health,
> and respiratory diseases."
>
> Amarales has focused her efforts on what she calls "education and
> prevention," but her policy boils down to little more than warning
> the residents to protect themselves by wearing sunblock that many
> can't afford, wide-brimmed hats, long-sleeved shirts and sunglasses
> offering protection from UVB rays. She has also proposed a plan to
> require all students to take a class on the ozone layer, and has
> pushed for the local newspaper, La Prensa Austral, to receive daily
> radiation projections.
>
> Since earlier this year, the projections have become, like the
> horoscope, a daily feature of the newspaper. On the last page, a
> picture of a traffic signal, with colors corresponding to the level
> of radiation for that day, from red (the worst) down to orange, then
> yellow, then green. There have been 13 red alerts so far this year.
> The radiation levels are collected by Claudio Casiccia, the harried
> geophysicist who single-handedly monitors the depletion levels from
> the rooftop of Punta Arenas' University of Magallanes. A red alert
> means that the radiation level is so high that it can cause some
> people's skin to burn within five minutes.
>
> And yet when you ask many people on the street about that day's
> color
> alert -- including the hotel receptionist, as I did morning after
> morning -- they simply don't know. Sometimes they guess, raising
> their inflection on the last syllable to transform their statement
> into a question -- "na-ran-JA?" (orange), for example, or "roJO?"
> (red). Or else they may confide knowingly, like an impoverished
> woman
> who works in a fish cannery and lives near the town port, that a red
> alert indicates that a big storm is about to blow in.
>
> "I think a lot of people are going to die in the future," says
> Alvarez, the congressman from the region. "People at the refinery,
> the fisherman, I think a lot of people are not going to change their
> way of life and many will suffer and risk dying." Alvarez is backing
> a bill that proposes to use public funds to subsidize the cost of
> protective gear for those who can't afford it. The cheapest glasses
> with UV-B protection at the local optometrist shop cost around $33;
> sunscreen with SPF 15 is about $12.
>
> While the much-applauded Montreal Protocol addressed the problem of
> the ozone-destroying chemicals, it did not establish any type of
> fund
> for researching the long-term biological effects or for helping
> those
> countries on the front lines. There has also been no other
> international initiative to deal with the problem; as a result, the
> people in the world's southern regions -- like Chile, Argentina and
> Australia, where ozone depletion is the most severe -- have little
> information as to what will really happen to them after many years.
> "The industrialized countries have been mainly responsible for
> emitting ozone-depleting compounds, but they haven't taken
> responsibility for the health and ecological damage that their
> emissions may cause to third parties, like Chile," says
> environmental
> researcher Arjun Makhijani. "As we see health effects emerge,
> there's
> no way to hold people accountable for the damages and no one has
> stepped up to the plate and said, 'We will help you if there are
> damages.'"
>
> The effects of the UV radiation on the ecosystems and animals in the
> area are also not known. Sheep, which dot the pastures like cotton
> candy, are so prevalent that Magallanes is called the "region
> granadera," or cattle region. "We don't know how the animals feel --
> maybe they feel something," says Carlos Rowland, a veterinarian and
> director of the regional branch of the national Agricultural and
> Cattle Services. "But the sheep live for four to five years and then
> the farmers send them to be killed. The sheep don't live long enough
> to see if they are developing problems with their eyes and skin."
>
> Every morning at 7, Maria Teresa Argüelles, an unassuming
> kindergarten teacher, arises and applies sunburn cream and then
> reminds her 11-year-old son Daniel to put on his hat and lotion. She
> has bought Daniel sunglasses but is afraid to let him take them to
> school because they are expensive and she fears he will break them.
> And like many kids, he often just shoves his hat in his bookbag. "I
> think the problem is that people in general aren't conscious of the
> sun's effects," she says.
>
> Argüelles points upward with her index finger and explains that the
> sky looks no different than when she was a child. But it certainly
> feels different. "It now stings my skin," she says as she touches
> her
> cheeks with both hands and scrunches up her face.
>
> She worries, too, about her students. They come in with rosy cheeks
> after outdoor playtime -- one child recently burned himself severely
> and had to stay out of school for several days. And her husband
> Jorge
> Asencio, a security guard for a 7-Up factory who works outside for
> much of the day, comes home complaining of headaches when the sun's
> been particularly bright.
>
> Two weeks ago, he came home complaining about vision problems. "I
> think it's because of the sun," she says about his right eye, which
> is completely bloodshot. Asencio says he has problems seeing up
> close, but he can't afford to go to the doctor until the end of the
> month, when he gets paid.
>
> "These people are not accustomed to much radiation and suddenly,
> they
> are getting more," says Dr. Juan Honeyman, head of the department of
> dermatology at Santiago's University of Chile Medical School. "The
> problem is, with the switch, people can get burned -- the acute
> effect of UVB radiation."
>
> While there have been noticeable health changes in the people of
> Punta Arenas, as Honeyman has documented in new research, the
> effects
> haven't been as severe as might have been expected. He compared two
> studies, one from 1992 and one last year, that examined the health
> of
> similar groups of people -- middle-aged hospital employees and
> outdoor workers like farmers and fishermen. Honeyman found a 28
> percent increase in cheilitis (fissures and cracks around the
> mouth);
> a 16.4 increase in conditions like solar spots (small patches of
> sunburn); and a 3.6 percent increase in benign skin conditions like
> facial hyperpigmentation (a darkening of the skin), herpes simplex
> type 1 and photoaging (a premature aging and wrinkling of the skin).
>
>
> Only a few days after I left Punta Arenas, I felt the first tingle
> of
> a cold sore forming in the right-hand corner on my upper lip. Was
> this because I forgot to put on my SPF lip balm after the first day?
> Despite my hyperawareness of the issue -- the whole reason I came
> was
> to learn about the ozone hole's effects -- I behaved no differently
> than most of the people who live here.
>
> On the first day, I bundled up completely and looked as if I'd been
> dressed by an overprotective mom, with a baseball cap pulled down to
> shade my face, sunglasses, lip balm and sun cream. But gradually I
> shed my concern and went about my business as if nothing was amiss
> --
> even though I knew everything was. I stopped using my hat because
> the
> face-slapping wind kept blowing it off, and I tired of constantly
> transferring my sunglasses between my eyes and my purse.
>
> While I saw some people completely bedecked in protective clothing,
> Honeyman confirms the sense I got walking around the streets that
> few
> bother. According to his most recent study, 64 percent of people
> have
> never used sunburn lotion to protect themselves despite official
> warnings, and 41 percent have never worn sunglasses in their entire
> lives. But he stresses that he found no significant change in rates
> of skin cancer or pre-malignant cancer. According to the local
> health
> minister Amarales, the incidence rate of skin cancer is 6.3 per
> 100,000 people, although she has no figures for the rate 10 years
> ago. Only recently were doctors required to start reporting cases of
> skin cancer the way they report cases of infectious disease.
>
> Many of the officials here make it sound like it will be a simple
> task to convince people to suddenly change their daily habits.
> Amarales seems naive, and a little flippant, as he talks about how
> easy it is to remain in the shadows of trees or tall buildings on
> high radiation days, even though it's freezing here and even colder
> in the shade. After a few days in Punta Arenas, I found myself
> crossing the street to walk in the sun's path and bask a little in
> the warmth -- and I was highly motivated not to, and knew I was
> leaving soon.
>
> The fact is that not everyone has the luxury of choosing whether or
> not to be in the sun. How can farmers stay out of the sun, when
> their
> animals are scattered across thousands of acres and their days start
> at 7 a.m. and continue until dusk? And how about the construction
> workers I passed on a Saturday morning, burly men shoveling gravel
> in
> the middle of the street in direct sunlight? Their foreman, Juan
> Aguilante, directed them from the shade while wearing his protective
> clothes. "No, none of them are wearing sunblock," he says. "They
> can't afford it."
>
> But Amarales remains confident she can get her message across.
> "Changing people's habits is the most difficult thing in the world,
> but I think I am optimistic because the people in our region are
> easy
> to educate," she says.
>
> Of course, there are a few signs that the message is reaching the
> populace. Some people on the street stroll past wearing sunglasses
> and baseball caps; locals say no one did in the past. A taxi driver
> who is standing outside his cab waiting for customers says he became
> concerned just this year. Every day now, he says, he listens to the
> reports on the radio and scans the alerts in the newspaper so he can
> dress appropriately.
>
> Yet people here can be prickly and defensive when the subject
> arises.
> Even Dr. Honeyman, whom everyone appears to regard as an expert on
> the subject, says that more UVB radiation falls on sunny Santiago,
> the country's capital and most populated city. And on many days this
> is true. The ozone layer is naturally thinner closer to the equator;
> over the poles it is usually thick until the seasonal depletion
> occurs. (The problem, of course, is that people living closer to the
> equator are more used to dealing with the effects of the sun -- and
> as the ozone layer thins, the problems in those hotter cities will
> worsen.)
>
> They also express irritation at the foreign reporters who are so
> interested in their fate. More than once, people told me to consider
> the situation in my own country, in places like Florida and Southern
> California, where people strut around in bikinis and trunks for
> months at a time with the sun glaring down on them.
>
> And many people still don't believe there's a problem. Long before
> Dolly, the infamous Scottish lamb that claimed her 15 minutes of
> fame
> by being the first animal to be cloned, there was another picture of
> what happens when you mess with Mother Nature -- the Sheep of Punta
> Arenas. Apocalyptic reports from local farmers of sheep that had
> gone
> blind from the sun with cataracts circulated across the globe. But
> the reports were found to be untrue.
>
> That was several years ago, but the false report has long lingered
> in
> some residents' minds, bolstering their sense that all this talk of
> ozone doomsday is just an exaggeration, as overhyped a threat as the
> Y2K bug. Jurgen Schulmeister, a 45-year-old German expat, is one of
> the skeptics. Atop a hill just outside town, he lives with his
> Chilean wife and two children in a house with its own indoor
> swimming
> pool. "Ten years ago, some tourists gave me an article from German
> scientists saying that yes, there is a big problem and that plants
> and animals will die. And now I live here, and there's no problem
> with plants, animals, cancer. Ten years later people work normally,
> they live, with no problem."
>
> Of course, scientists like Honeyman say that it's the cumulative
> effects of the sun that will cause the real damage, and that it may
> take years before the consequences become apparent. Until then, the
> people here continue with their lives, taking each day as it comes,
> adapting their behavior accordingly -- or not -- and wondering what
> the bright yellow disc in the sky will do to them and their
> children.
>
>
> Maria Arguelles is one of those who worries. As she sits by her
> living room window and watches the fierce wind rip clothes off the
> laundry line, she says sadly that she feels helpless against the
> elements. If the situation does get worse in the next few years, she
> says, she and her family will probably leave town.
>
> "But at that point, wherever you go, you take your health problems
> with you," she says. "Now all I can do is wait."
>
>
Title: FW: [helpinghands] FW: [sustaindane] Impacts of Ozone Hole and Global Warming over Chile
