Holey Ozone

Holey Ozone

The ozone is a vital part to all means of life on earth, without it the Sun's Ultraviolet(UV) Rays would starilize the Earth's surface and any form of life would seize to exist. The ozone regualtes how much UV radiation hits the Earth's Surface.A quick description of what the ozone is made up of.. http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/facts/SH.html

"Ozone is a gas made up of three oxygen atoms (O₃). It occurs naturally in small (trace) amounts in the upper atmosphere (the stratosphere). Ozone protects life on Earth from the Sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation. In the lower atmosphere (the troposphere) near the Earth’s surface, ozone is created by chemical reactions between air pollutants from vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors, and other emissions. At ground level, high concentrations of ozone are toxic to people and plants." (NASA.gov/facts)

http://www.cosmostv.org/2011/04/ozone-layer-faces-record-loss-over.html

Reason Being...
The increase in population on Earth within the past century has lead me to believe that the human race is slowly putting all life at major risk. The more people their are in the world the more machines their will be causing more polutants to be emmitted into the environment therefore continuing the depletion of the ozone. More health risk occur over the years from breathing in the harmful ozone fumes. As the ozone gradually depletes the Earth's temperature is also slowly rising, leading to catastrophic events such as global warming. Urban areas such as cities tend to have a higher pollutant rate than rural areas, due to the unthinkable amount of harmful emissions being releaased into the atmospher on a daily basis.

"Increased levels of human-produced gases such as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) have led to increased rates of ozone destruction, upsetting the natural balance of ozone and leading to reduced stratospheric ozone levels. These reduced ozone levels have increased the amount of harmful ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth’s surface. When scientists talk about the ozone hole, they are talking about the destruction of stratospheric, “good,” ozone." (NASA.gov/facts)



As for "hole" in the ozone...

"This year the Arctic winter was warmer than average at ground level, but colder in the stratosphere than normal Arctic winters".

"The Earth's fragile ozone layer in the Arctic region has suffered a loss of about 40 percent from the start of winter until late March"

http://www.cosmostv.org/2011/04/ozone-layer-faces-record-loss-over.html#ixzz1dfSK7yRq

What's there to do?

Clearly the sollution to the depletion of the ozone is to emit less harmfull toxins into the environment, but that cant happen overnight. The entire planet has to change daily life to have an evirnmentally friendly way of living. Everything from a backyard fire to car exhaust to factory smog is a factor in the depletion of the ozone. It's going to be a long process but if everyone can become more educated on the matter, change would happen much faster and the Earth would live alot longer. People would maintain a much healthier lifestyle and any machine that pollutes some sort of toxin hopefully become modified to be environmentally friendly. In the mean time the EPA(Evironmental Protection Agency) has released documents on the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for

http://www.epa.gov/air/ozonepollution/actions.html#stand