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About ozone and the 3Ps As the Earths sunscreen, ozone is important to sustainable development:
Prosperity The potential consequences for Prosperity are the result of the impacts to People and Planet and the financial losses incurred in mitigating these impacts.
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ozone layer is located mainly in the lower portion of the stratosphere from approximately 10 50 kms above the Earth, though the thickness varies
seasonally and geographically.
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Planet
About World Ozone Day
and sustainability
In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly voted to designate 16 September as World Ozone Day, to commemorate the establishment of the Montreal Protocol on this date in 1987. The theme for 2009 is Universal participation: Ozone
People Acute exposure to solar UV radiation causes sunburn and can result in damage to eyesight and, in the long term, skin cancer. It has also been found that UV radiation can negatively affect the immune system.
Planet Most plants have natural mechanisms that provide some form of UV shielding, but do not always have
sufficient amounts for complete protection and can suffer detrimental effects. In clear
oceans and lake waters, UV radiation can penetrate and affect shallow-water fish and plankton.
About ozone depletion Ozone is the Earths natural sunscreen, absorbing and blocking most of the incoming UV radiation from the sun and protecting life from DNA-damaging radiation. The gas is naturally created and replenished by a photochemical reaction in the upper atmosphere where UV rays break oxygen molecules (O2) into in-
dividual atoms that then recombine into three-part molecules (O3) that is, ozone. As ozone is moved around the
globe by upper level winds, it is slowly depleted by naturally occurring atmospheric gases. It is a system in natural balance.
But the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in refrigerants and the inert carriers for aerosol sprays, invented in 1928, upset that balance. Researchers discovered in the 1970s and 1980s that while CFCs
are inert at the Earths surface, they are quite reactive in the stratosphere (10 50 kms altitude, or 6 31
Ozone-oxygen cycle Source; Wikipedia miles), where roughly 90 percent of the planets ozone accumulates. UV radiation causes CFCs and similar bromine compounds in the stratosphere to break up into elemental chlorine and bromine that readily destroy ozone molecules. Worst of all, such ozone depleting substances can reside for several decades in the stratosphere before breaking down.
About the Montreal Protocol In the 1980s, ozone-depleting substances opened a wintertime hole over Antarctica and opened the eyes of the world to the effects of human activity on the atmosphere. By 1987, the World Meteorological Organization and United Nations Environment Program had brought together scientists, diplomats, environmental advocates, governments, industry representatives, and non-governmental organizations to forge an agreement to phase out the chemicals. In January 1989, the Montreal Protocol (full name: The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer) was brought into force, the first-ever international agreement on regulation of chemi-
cal pollutants.
At Montreal, the participants agreed to freeze production of CFCs at 1986 levels and to reduce production by 50% by 1999. After a series of scientific expeditions to the Antarctic produced convincing evidence that the ozone hole was indeed caused by chlorine and bromine from manmade organohalogens, the Montreal Protocol was strengthened at a 1990 meeting in London. The participants agreed to phase out CFCs and halons entirely (aside from a very small amount marked for certain essential uses, such as asthma inhalers) by 2000. At a 1992 meeting in Copenhagen, the phase out date was moved up to 1996. Scientists believe that if the Montreal Proctocol is adhered to, the ozone layer will recover by 2050. Due to its widespread adoption and implementation it has been hailed as an example of exceptional international co-operation.
Perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol. Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General of the United Nations
About the way forward On 02 August 2003, scientists announced that the
depletion of the ozone layer had slowed down signficantly over the previous decade due
to the international ban on CFCs. Three satellites and three ground stations confirmed this view. Some breakdown can be expected to continue due to CFCs used by nations which have not banned them, and due to gases which are already in the stratosphere.
FAQ
because they introduce chlorine into the ozone layer. What happens is that the ultraviolet
radiation at this altitude breaks down CFCs, freeing World Production of CFCs the chlorine. Under the proper conditions, this chlorine has the potential to destroy large amounts of ozone. This has indeed been observed, especially over Antarctica. Given the longevity of CFC molecules, recovery times are measured in decades. It is calculated that a CFC molecule takes an average of 15 years to go from the ground level up to the upper atmosphere, and it can stay there for about a century, destroying up to one hundred thousand ozone molecules during that time.
Q // Why does the ozone hole occur in spring and why is it more pronounced in Antarctica? A //
The ozone hole occurs during the Antarctic spring, from September to early December, as strong westerly winds start to circulate around the continent and create an atmospheric vortex, or persistent large-scale cyclone, at the Earths poles. The Antarctic vortex is more pronounced and persistent than the Arctic one because the distribution of land masses at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere gives rise to Rossby waves (wave-like patterns in the atmosphere) which contribute to the breakdown of the vortex. In the southern hemisphere, the topography is different, which means the vortex is less disturbed and explains why Antarctica is more affected by ozone depletion than the Arctic.
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The Dobson unit is named after Gordon Dobson, a researcher at the University of Oxford. In the 1920s, he built the first instrument to measure ozone, now called the Dobson ozone spectrophotometer. Currently, global average ozone is about 300 Dobson units. Before 1980, ozone less than 200 Dobson units was rarely seen.
NASA projections of stratospheric ozone concentrations if chlorofluorocarbons had not been banned
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