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The Claim

Stratospheric ozone over China is significantly depleted due to pollution.

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The Short Version

The evidence does not support the claim that stratospheric ozone over China is significantly depleted because of pollution. Reliable sources distinguish China’s serious surface-level ozone pollution from stratospheric ozone depletion, which is primarily a global, well-mixed phenomenon. China has contributed ozone-depleting substances to the atmosphere, but the cited studies do not show major localized depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer above China.

Caveats

  • The claim conflates tropospheric ozone pollution at the surface with stratospheric ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere; they are different problems.
  • Evidence that China emitted ozone-depleting substances does not prove significant ozone loss specifically above China.
  • The wording 'significantly depleted' overstates the magnitude; cited studies do not report large stratospheric ozone depletion over China.

The Receipts

  1. Stratospheric influence on surface ozone pollution in China

    Nature Communications

  2. Stratospheric ozone – depletion, recovery and new challenges

    UNEP Ozone Secretariat

  3. Lower tropospheric ozone over the North China Plain: variability and trends revealed by IASI satellite observations for 2008–2016

    Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

  4. Chinese Satellite Programmes

    UNEP Ozone Secretariat

  5. Midlatitude Ozone Depletion and Air Quality Impacts from Industrial Halogens

    NOAA Institutional Repository

  6. Long-term trend of ozone pollution in China during 2014–2020

    Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

  7. Anthropogenic emissions of ozone-depleting substance CH3Cl in China from 2000 to 2020

    PubMed

  8. Parsimonious estimation of hourly surface ozone concentration across China using deep learning

    PubMed Central

  9. Potential Effect of Halogens on Atmospheric Oxidation and Air Pollution in China

    PubMed Central

  10. Banks, emissions, and environmental impacts of China's ozone depletion substances and hydrofluorocarbon substitutes during 1980–2020

    Science of The Total Environment (Elsevier)

+ 17 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

China

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