Global warming could compromise efforts to fix the Ozone hole by 2050, causing the ambitious goal to slip by more than 30 years despite progress towards scrapping Ozone-destroying chemicals, scientists said on Sunday. Computer models show a big drop in consumption of man-made Chloro-Fluoro-Carbon (CFC) gases that gnaw away at the earth's protective layer, they said. “If countries resolutely follow this trend, the hole in the Ozone layer will soon begin to shrink and should close completely in 50 years,” they said. The communique was issued by the second assembly on stratospheric processes and their role in climate (SPARC), which gathered several hundred climate experts, meeting in Argentina last month under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). But even if the consumption goals are met, global warming -- the result of carbon-based Greenhouse Gases (GHGS) spewed out by fossil fuels -- could cause the 2050 deadline to slip by several decades, the scientists warned. Paradoxically, global warming heats the atmosphere at the earth's surface but chills the lower stratosphere where the Ozone Layer is located. These lower temperatures, especially in Winter, cause stratospheric clouds to form in the polar regions, which in turn initiates an Ozone-killing reaction with chlorine molecules released by CFCS. Model results presented during the conference predicted that the enhancement of GHGS could postpone the recovery of the Ozone Layer by 20 or 30 years or more, said Pablo Canziano, Research Professor at the Atmospheric Sciences Department of The University of Buenos Aires. Bureau Report