Civilizations From Oldest Stars Had Enough Time To Reach Earth If They Wanted To: Researchers. Washington: If alien life really exists, they would have found humans by now, but consciously avoiding us for unknown reasons, a new study has suggested. Researchers, who calculated the time a society would take to muster up resources and know-how to travel to another world, found that alien civilizations starting from the oldest stars in the galaxy would have had more than enough time to reach Earth.

Government of the Maldives showcased its success story in ozone protection and achieving carbon neutrality in a side event organized by the Ministry of Housing and Environment of Maldives in cooperation with the OzonAction Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on 24th November 2011 in Bali, Indonesia.

This event was held during the 23rd Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer from 21 to 25 November 2011.

A huge hole that appeared in the Earth's protective ozone layer above the Arctic in 2011 was the largest recorded in the Northern Hemisphere, triggering worries the event could occur again and be even worse, scientists said in a report on Monday.

The ozone layer high in the stratosphere acts like a giant shield against the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which can cause skin cancers and cataracts.

Since the 1980s, scientists have recorded an ozone hole every summer above the Antarctic at the bottom of the globe.

Health officials are banning the only asthma inhaler sold over the counter in the United States starting from next year to prevent the use of products that harm the environment.

The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in metered-dose asthma inhalers that contain the drug epinephrine cannot be used, following an international agreement that bans CFCs because they deplete the Earth's ozone layer.

The environment ministry has targeted to phase out Ozone depleting HCFC by 2030, according to the Hydro Chlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) Phase out Management Plan.

The plan will be implemented in 2013 in harmony with the Montreal Protocol in which Sri Lanka is a member country.

London: Researchers in Australia have claimed that the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is on the road to recovery, 22 years after the Montreal Protocol to ban chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and related ozone-destroying chemicals came into force.

The team is the first to detect a recovery in baseline average springtime ozone levels in the region.

Shift in rainfall patterns across Southern Hemisphere The Antarctic ozone hole is about one-third to blame for Australia's recent series of droughts, say scientists. Writing in the journal Science, they conclude that the hole has shifted wind and rainfall patterns right across the Southern Hemisphere, even the tropics. Their climate models suggest the effect has been notably strong over Austr