The Destruction of the Ozone Layer
Omar Mahmoud
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Recently, I did an assignment on the destruction of the Ozone layer and I thought it was fascinating and would be interesting to share with you guys.
Let’s begin a little bit of background information:
In the 1920s refrigerator coolants were very toxic. The stuff used to cool things in the refrigerator, if leaked out, could kill from just a sniff.
Scientists needed to create something better
CFCs were made for better and safer non-toxic cooling. Basically a CFC is any compound that has Fluorine, Carbon and Chlorine
In the 1970s, 2 scientists, Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina, said that CFCs were most likely destroying the ozone layer. Somehow scientists considered the chemical composition, thought of O3 and said “There is a hole up there guys, we need to check”.
Ozone is a natural shield in the atmosphere made up of O3 molecules which help protect us from solar radiation and UV rays, (if you didn’t know).
Then, scientists looked at the ozone layer and found this huge hole.
Half of the ozone layer over Antarctica was destroyed in just one decade
Eventually, this hole in the ozone layer could cause lethal levels of UV radiation to enter and kill us. It would pretty much burn us to a crisp. Before that, we would see mutations and bad stuff overall.
In 1987 more than 30 countries came together and signed the Montreal Protocol to ban CFC production
As of 2022, all world nations are signed up. This is probably the only time the whole world came together for one cause
The ozone layer is healing, but not yet fully recovered.
It is expected to recover fully by 2050.
So, how does it happen?
The CFC goes up through the atmosphere and floats to the ozone layer. There are many high energy UV rays up there, as that is what the ozone layer is stopping. The chlorine in the CFC breaks up due to these high energy rays. Then, the chlorine atom goes and reacts with O3 and takes one of the O, leaving O2. Next, the ClO reacts with another O3 and drops off the oxygen it picked up (chlorine and oxygen are not really a common combo) and then there are 4 oxygen. And, since that isn’t an actual number of oxygen in one molecule, the 4 is split into 2 and then you are just left with 2 oxygen molecules.
Essentially, that one single chlorine goes around thousands of times and breaks up the ozones into oxygen. Each chlorine atom can turn every 2 ozones into 3 oxygen molecules in just one shot. So just imagine it repeating that many times.
Oxygen is not helpful. Sure we breathe it, but it doesn’t help in stopping UV rays. Given that there aren't that many ozones in the first place, we couldn’t afford any breakage. Just imagine thousands of CFC molecules, millions even. It is catastrophic.
How does Ozone do it?
Basically, oxygen is used to being 2 in a molecule. It is diatomic. Essentially in the atmosphere up there, it is able to have 3. What happens is that when UV rays hit the ozone layer, the energy is absorbed into the molecule and breaks it up into a normal oxygen molecule (O2) and a lone oxygen atom. Since oxygen HATES being alone, it goes and finds another pair and makes the 3.
It is an endless cycle of rehealing, which is why the ozone layer is still healing. But, there was so much CFC that there was an abundance of O2 being made and not enough time or oxygen to heal it. And now we are hoping in 20.25 years it will be fully back to normal.
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