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UN Weather Body: Ozone Layer on Road to Recovery Despite Volcano Eruption

FILE PHOTO: The eruption of an underwater volcano off Tonga, is seen in an image from the NOAA GOES-West satellite taken at 05:00 GMT January 15, 2022. CIRA/NOAA/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: The eruption of an underwater volcano off Tonga, is seen in an image from the NOAA GOES-West satellite taken at 05:00 GMT January 15, 2022. CIRA/NOAA/Handout via REUTERS
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UN Weather Body: Ozone Layer on Road to Recovery Despite Volcano Eruption

FILE PHOTO: The eruption of an underwater volcano off Tonga, is seen in an image from the NOAA GOES-West satellite taken at 05:00 GMT January 15, 2022. CIRA/NOAA/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: The eruption of an underwater volcano off Tonga, is seen in an image from the NOAA GOES-West satellite taken at 05:00 GMT January 15, 2022. CIRA/NOAA/Handout via REUTERS

The world's ozone layer is on "the road to long-term recovery" despite a destructive volcanic eruption in the South Pacific, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday, after efforts to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals.
On current trends, the ozone layer is on track to recover to 1980 levels by around 2066 over the Antarctic, 2045 over the Arctic and 2040 for the rest of the world, the United Nations agency said.
Though the volcanic eruption near Tonga in early 2022 led to a short period of accelerated depletion of ozone above Antarctica last year, driven by higher levels of atmospheric water vapor, overall losses were limited, it said in its annual ozone bulletin.
The ozone layer protects the earth from the sun's ultraviolet radiation, which is linked to skin cancer and other health risks.
The Montreal Protocol, which came into effect in 1989, agreed to phase out chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting substances, and its success "stands out as a powerful symbol of hope" at a time when multilateral cooperation has come under strain, Reuters quoted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as saying in a statement.
CFCs have been largely replaced by hydrofluorocarbons, which do not cause ozone depletion but are a powerful climate-warming greenhouse gas.
Countries are now implementing the 2016 Kigali amendment to Montreal, which will phase down HFC production, and could avoid around 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100.
China remains the world's biggest HFC producer, with current capacity the equivalent of nearly 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. About a quarter is exported.
China's environment ministry said on Monday it would soon publish a plan to better control HFC production. As a developing country, it is obliged to cut HFC consumption by 85% from 2013 to 2045.
China is cutting manufacturing quotas and cracking down on illegal production, but it warned this year it still "faces huge challenges" in phasing down HFCs, which are used by a wide range of different industries, many of which have struggled to find substitute products.

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Varieties

Rare New Zealand Snail Filmed for First Time Laying an Egg from its Neck

In this image made from video, a Powelliphanta augusta snail lays an egg from it's neck at the Hokitika Snail Housing facility, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Hokitika, New Zealand. (Lisa Flanagan/New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP)
In this image made from video, a Powelliphanta augusta snail lays an egg from it's neck at the Hokitika Snail Housing facility, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Hokitika, New Zealand. (Lisa Flanagan/New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP)
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Rare New Zealand Snail Filmed for First Time Laying an Egg from its Neck

In this image made from video, a Powelliphanta augusta snail lays an egg from it's neck at the Hokitika Snail Housing facility, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Hokitika, New Zealand. (Lisa Flanagan/New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP)
In this image made from video, a Powelliphanta augusta snail lays an egg from it's neck at the Hokitika Snail Housing facility, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Hokitika, New Zealand. (Lisa Flanagan/New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP)

The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country’s conservation agency said Wednesday.
What looks like a tiny hen’s egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand.
The video was taken at a facility on the South Island’s West Coast, where conservation rangers attempting to save the species from extinction have cared for a population of the snails in chilled containers for nearly two decades, The Associated Press reported.
The conditions in the containers mimic the alpine weather in their only former habitat — a remote mountain they were named for, on the West Coast of the South Island, that has been engulfed by mining.
Observing their habits Lisa Flanagan from the Department of Conservation, who has worked with the creatures for 12 years, said the species still holds surprises.
“It’s remarkable that in all the time we’ve spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we’ve seen one lay an egg,” she said in a statement.
Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how the creatures can reproduce when encased in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of its body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg.
Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs a year. The egg can take more than a year to hatch.
“Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old,” said Flanagan. “They’re polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand, which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.”
The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings where they are threatened by habitat loss.
They are carnivores that slurp up earthworms like noodles, and are some of the world’s largest snails, with oversized, distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colors and swirling patterns.
The Powelliphanta augusta was the center of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when an energy company’s plans to mine for coal threatened to destroy the snails’ habitat.
Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn't adapt well to new habitats.
In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control.
But the species’ slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said.