Ozone essays

Ozone essays In this paper, evidence will show how ozone layer depletion is a problem. Harmful chemicals, produced by man, and nature, effect the ozone layer, a part of the earths atmosphere. The earth has environmental problems, and ozone layer depletion is just one of them. The ozone layer is a layer of irritating, corrosive, colorless gas that absorbs 97-99% of the suns high frequency ultraviolet light, which is damaging to life on earth. ( Sparling, Ozone Depletion) Ozone layer depletions history dates back to as early as 1956. In 1956, the first ground based measurements were taken in Halley Bay, Antarctica. The in the 1970s, satellite measurements were started. The first comprehensive worldwide satellite measurement happened in 1978 with the NIMBUS-7 satellite. The NIMBUS-7 carried on it two things, the TOMS (total ozone mapping spectrometer), and the SBUV (solar backscatter UV meter). The NIMBUS-7, along with other instruments, measured the amount of chlorofluorcarbons in the atmosphere. Chlorofluorcarbons were first created in 1928 as a non-toxic, non-flammable refrigerant, by a commercial company called DuPont. CFC-12 was the first type of chlorofluorcarbon (1 single carbon w/ 2 chlorines, s) created. (Sparling, Ozone Depletion, History ) M.J. Molina and F.S. Rowland published a lab study in 1974 demonstrating how CFCs breakdown ozone when a high frequency of UV light is present. Based on this study, an estimation of about 7% of ozone would be depleted in the next years, lead to the U.S. banning CFCs in aerosol sprays. Slowly after, other nations agreed to ban CFCs in aerosol sprays. In addition, the most recent world resolution, the Montreal Protocol, was based on negotiations between European-Scandinavian countries and the United States over CFCs in the fall of 1983. The Montreal Protocol was signed in the fall of 198...