Kieran Healy

Holes

AP reports that the Ozone hole over Antarctica has shrunk, and split in two. Now, it seems OK so say a hole is shrinking. How a hole splits in two is harder for me to see. What exactly is doing the splitting? Or maybe splitting (extra matter coming in one particular way) is just a special case of shrinking (extra matter coming in all around, more or less). But that seems weird, because by adding matter you get more holes. Questions like this are why I am not a philosopher. I need to go re-read David and Steffi Lewis’s dialog on Holes. Or else get Laurie to give Achille Varzi a call for me. (You may remember Achille being in the news during the Florida election disaster, when experts on holes—- and what counted as a hole in, say, a punch card—- were in rare but heavy demand.)

It just goes to show how little we understand about how our planet is working. We need to focus more research dollars in this area and figure out exactly whats going on. In my opinion this is a huge issue, but you won’t see the bush administration even mention it. It’s sad