Wheres all the ozone gone

1
Wheres all the ozone gone?

• Global Ecology Ozone Depletion

2
Loss of Ozone

• Ozone is three oxygen molecules bound together
• Ozone is a natural product that was first created
  billions of years ago
• This ozone is now in the stratosphere of the
  earths atmosphere
• The ozone layer shields the earths surface and
  its inhabitants from certain wavelengths of UV
  radiation
• Ground-level ozone is often man-made and harmful
  to many life forms, including humans and plants

3
Stratospheric Ozone protects us
4
Chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) are destroy
stratospheric ozone
5
Chemistry of Ozone-depletion

• Note one single chlorine molecule from a CFC
  molecule can destroy 100,000 ozone molecules!
• Also Nitrous Oxide is also a bad no-no

6
Ozone depletion is most pronounced at high
latitudes
The Ozone Hole around the South Pole
7
The Results

• 10 increase in UV radiation at the earths
  surface in winter, 5 in summer, especially in
  high latitudes
• Malignant skin cancers in humans are 10-fold
  greater now than in the 1950s
• Every 1 decline in ozone layer thickness results
  in an estimated 2-3 increase in certain skin
  cancers

8
Whats the solution?

• Montreal Protocol, 1987
• 150 signing countries, including major industrial
  ones (including U.S.)

9
Montreal Protocol works!

• While the ozone hole has not completely healed,
  it does show signs of recovery
• Montreal Protocol (M.P.) shows that global
  treaties can work
• M.P. shows that other treaties such as Kyoto
  Protocol can be accomplished

10
It works, but

• M.P. allows for substitutions of CFCs for HCFCs
  and HFCs
• These are potent greenhouse gases, however
• Also, there is widespread CFC smuggling, esp.
  into developed nations