Radiation alert under ozone hole in Chile

By Chris Aspin

Punta Arenas, Chile, Oct. 10— A wide swath of southern Chile was on alert yesterday as dangerous levels of ultraviolet radiation hit peaks because of the depletion of the protective ozone layer over the Antarctic.

Health authorities warned the 120,000 residents of this wool and fishing city -- one of the few populated areas beneath the ozone hole in the southern hemisphere -- not to go out in the sun during the day.

The ozone hole over the Antarctic this year has reached its deepest since scientists began measuring it 15 years ago, with more than 50 percent depletion being recorded throughout most of the hole, United Nations experts said on Friday.

That has left this windy city 1,400 miles (2,240 km) south of Chile’s capital, Santiago, -- and also the Argentine city of Ushuaia on the nearby island Tierra del Fuego -- open to harmful ultraviolet radiation which can cause skin cancer and destroy tiny plants in the food chain. The tip of the Americas, south of the Patagonia wilds, is the only landmass outside the Antarctic exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the ozone hole.

Warning to avoid sun

“We are warning people throughout the region not to go out in the sun between 11 am and 3 pm,” said Lidia Amarales, the health minister in Chile’s most southerly Magallanes and Antarctic Region, where Punta Arenas is the provincial capital.

Health authorities called an orange alert -- the second most dangerous level in a scale of four -- in which ultraviolet (UV) exposure can cause skin burns in 7 minutes. A red alert can provoke burning in 5 minutes.

“If people have to leave their homes they should wear high factor sun creams, UV protective sunglasses, wide brimmed hats and clothing with long sleeves,” said Amarales.

Dr. Claudio Casiccia, head of the ozone department at the University of Magallanes, said ultraviolet radiation levels hit an all-time peak Saturday. “We are slightly below that level now but still on alert,” he said.

Despite the alert, many local residents walked the streets unprotected yesterday. “I have to go to buy bread and scarcely have money for that, so forget the sunglasses and sun cream,” said Adriana Cerpa, a 28-year-old housewife.

Experts from the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday the ozone hole is at its deepest level on record and that “near total destruction” of the ozone in some layers of the stratosphere had been observed since the middle of September, much earlier than in previous years.

Chemicals causing ozone depletion

Chemicals -- including chlorine compounds used in refrigerants, aerosol sprays and solvents and bromine compounds used in fire-fighting halogens -- are blamed for causing depletion.

Extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere during the southern hemisphere’s winter spark off the chemical ozone depletion, a process that accelerates as the region enters spring-time.

For more than a decade, the hole has appeared in late August or early September, with the phenomenon peaking in the first week or two of October, a clear sign that greenhouse gases are eating away the earth’s protective layer.

All 12 monitoring stations around the rim of the Antarctic have reported measurements of ozone this spring that are 50-70 percent below the norms in the years 1964-1976, before the ozone hole was detected, the Geneva-based WMO said.

An image released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Sept. 8 showed a hole appearing as a giant blue blob, totally covering Antarctica and stretching to the southern tip of South America.

NASA said the hole spread over 11 million square miles (28.3 million square km), an area three times larger than the land mass of the United States.

Source: Reuters

Nader packs Madison Square Garden for rally


Nader greets the crowd at Madison Square Garden

By Beth Gardiner

New York, New York, Oct. 15— About 15,000 supporters packed a sold-out Madison Square Garden to voice their noisy enthusiasm for Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, angrily criticizing his exclusion from the recent presidential debates and hailing him as a reinvigorating force for democracy.

The mostly 20- and 30-something crowd paid $20 each for tickets to the Friday night rally, billed as “Nader Rocks the Garden.” They whooped as celebrities including Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Michael Moore and Bill Murray heaped praise on Nader.

They grooved to musical performances by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith, Ani DiFranco and Ben Harper, and raised the roof with a chorus of, “Let Ralph Debate.”

“Welcome to the politics of joy and justice,” Nader said. “We are building a historic, progressive, political movement in America; a movement for which Nov. 7th is just one stopping place. No matter what people call themselves, the attitude is that they’ve lost control ... of even their own human genes to these giant corporations. It’s time for Americans to take control of the commonwealth they already own.”

In an hour-long speech that at times sounded like a left-leaning history lesson, Nader assailed big business for what he called “a corporate crime wave,” and said the Democratic and Republican parties were controlled by corporations.

“Our country has been sold to the highest bidder,” Nader said.

Concerning the environment, poverty, racism, workers’ rights, defense spending and a slew of other issues, the lifelong consumer advocate accused politicians and business of failing the country.

“Corporations were designed to be our servants not our masters,” he said. “We’re going backwards, while the rich are becoming super-rich.”

It was a different kind of political fund-raiser from the swank events often hosted by Democratic and Republican candidates, with the atmosphere of a rock concert rather than a political rally.

“You’re not seeing black ties,” said Thomas King, 22, of White Plains. Although a Democrat, King promised to vote for Nader to send a message. “I’m not too pleased with the fact that Clinton and the new Democrats have moved so close to the center. ...This is a populist movement.”

Cardboard boxes were passed through the crowd to collect donations.

Speakers assailed Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore as ideologically similar candidates in the pocket of corporate America. They said the two have similar views on trade, foreign policy and the war on drugs.

Filmmaker Moore urged the crowd not to worry that voting for Nader might help Bush by taking votes from Gore. “The lesser of two evils, you still end up with evil,” Moore said. “You don’t make a decision because of fear: you make it on your hopes, your dreams, your aspirations. ... Follow your conscience. Do the right thing.”

Referring to comedian and author Al Franken’s interview with Bush in this month’s Rolling Stone, in which Franken notes that Bush is proud of being able to name all 55 of his Yalie frat brothers, Moore said, “What I wanna know is: Could you name for us the last 55 people you executed?”

Nader, meanwhile, was inching his way toward his fund-raising goal of $5 million with small personal checks from supporters, volunteer-hosted “house parties,” and rallies like the one at the Garden. He has raised $4.7 million so far.

“We’re very frugal. We know how to get more out of a campaign dollar than Bush and Gore,” Nader is fond of saying.

Media blackout on Nader event

Although Ralph Nader sold out Madison Square Garden in the largest rally of the year for any political candidate, the New York City media deemed the event worthy of two paragraphs hidden on page 11 of the Daily News. The New York Times and New York Post didn’t even cover the event.

The New York Times, which probably has the largest newspaper reporting staff in the country, apparently didn’t even send a reporter to the event located just blocks from their Times Square headquarters. While today’s late edition copy failed to mention the event, the paper’s web site (www.nytimes.com) simply ran the Associated Press article.

Source: Associated Press, Salon, NYCIMC