Tories Axing Ozone-Monitoring System: Report

And with the snap of Stephen Harper's fingers, half a century of research into the ozone layer will disappear.

As part of the Conservative government's budget-balancing crusade, it appears as though Environment Canada will be shutting down the country's ozone-monitoring system after 45 years. The British science journal Nature says scientists around the world have been told that the monitoring system will in all likelihood be cut starting next year, as will a massive archive of data on ozone research from the past half century. Researchers from around the world are criticizing the Canadian government for axing one of the most critical parts of the global ozone-monitoring network, as Canada has so far played an integral role in gathering and interpreting data on ozone levels in the Arctic. And in case you thought the whole ozone layer issue had died down, climate researchers uncovered a growing hole in the ozone over the northern hemisphere earlier this year, letting in all sorts of harmful UV rays. There are 17 monitoring stations across the country, including one at the most northerly human settlement on the planet in Alert, Nunavut.