But the Zhengzhou operation shows the extent of China’s effort to entice overseas multinationals to set up production facilities in the country. The package of sweeteners and incentives, worth billions of dollars, is central to the production of the iPhone, Apple’s best-selling and most profitable product.Īmerican officials have long decried China’s support of its state-owned companies, calling the subsidies and other aid an unfair competitive advantage in a global marketplace. The well-choreographed customs routine is part of a hidden bounty of perks, tax breaks and subsidies in China that supports the world’s biggest iPhone factory, according to confidential government records reviewed by The New York Times, as well as more than 100 interviews with factory workers, logistics handlers, truck drivers, tax specialists and current and former Apple executives. The state-of-the-art facility was built several years ago to serve a single global exporter: Apple, now the world’s most valuable company and one of China’s largest retailers. Unmarked trucks stretch for more than a mile awaiting the next load headed for Beijing, New York, London and dozens of other destinations. Government officers, in sharply pressed uniforms, race around a maze of wooden pallets piled high with boxes - counting, weighing, scanning and approving shipments. At altitudes between 8 and 13 miles (14 to 21 kilometers) ozone was nearly completely absent during the ozone hole’s maximum size.ZHENGZHOU, China - A vast, boxy customs center acts as a busy island of commerce deep in central China. This year, scientists recorded the lowest total-column ozone value of 102 Dobson Units on October 7, the 8th lowest since 1986. When the polar sun rises, NOAA scientists also make measurements with a Dobson Spectropherometer, an optical instrument that records the total amount of ozone between the surface and the edge of space known as the total column ozone value. NOAA scientists at the South Pole Station record the ozone layer's thickness by releasing weather balloons carrying ozone-measuring instruments called ozonesondes that measure the varying ozone concentrations as the balloon rises into the stratosphere. Colder-than-average temperatures and strong winds in the stratosphere circling Antarctica contributed to the hole’s size. This year, NASA satellite observations determined the ozone hole reached a maximum of 9.6 million square miles (24.8 million square kilometers) – roughly the size of North America – before beginning to shrink in mid-October. NOAA and NASA researchers detect and measure the growth and break up of the ozone hole with satellite instruments aboard Aura, Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 satellites. But how do you measure a hole in the atmosphere? The chemical reactions then begin to destroy the ozone layer as the sun rises in the Antarctic at the end of winter.ĭownload Image Size matters. Chlorine and bromine derived from human-produced compounds are released from reactions on high-altitude polar clouds. What we call the ozone hole is a thinning of the protective ozone layer in the stratosphere (the upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere) above Antarctica that begins every September. “This is a large ozone hole because of the colder than average 2021 stratospheric conditions, and without a Montreal Protocol offsite link, it would have been much larger,” said Paul Newman, chief scientist for Earth Sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. This year’s ozone hole developed similarly to last year's: A colder than usual Southern Hemisphere winter lead to a deep and larger-than-average hole that will likely persist into November or early December. The 2021 Antarctic ozone hole reached its maximum area on October 7 and ranks 13th largest since 1979, scientists from NOAA and NASA reported today.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |