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Depletion of the Ozone Layer: A Harmful Trend

Although it is not on the public's radar as it was a few years ago, the depletion of the ozone layer is still a serious threat to the earth's environment. Here is a brief overview concerning the depletion of the ozone layer that will inform you about this prescient topic.

The depletion of the ozone layer represents one of the most prescient atmospheric challenges that have been traced back to human activity. Unfortunately, for many years human beings have remained ignorant about the way our atmosphere works. However, we now have a much better understanding of how the depletion of the ozone layer works. First, it helps to understand how the depletion of the ozone layer works.

We have all heard of ultraviolet radiation. When the sun shines over the earth, part of what the sun radiates is known as ultraviolet radiation. Radiation is emitted over the earth in the form of electromagnetic waves that include many different types of energy and wavelengths. The sun shines down both ultraviolet radiation as well as visible light. Visible light is the part of the sun's electromagnetic spectrum that we can see with the naked eye.

Ultraviolet radiation is a bit more tricky. It can not be seen by the naked eye. Ultraviolet radiation can be dangerous. Ultraviolet radiation can be easily absorbed by biological tissues as ell as protein and the DNA of all living things. Ultraviolet radiation is what is responsible for your summer sunburn. Now, imagine is the full spectrum of ultraviolet radiation would reach the earth. It is unlikely that most life on earth could survive if ultraviolet radiation penetrated the earth's surface in large doses.

But for now, all life on earth is protected from the potentially damaging effects of too much ultraviolet radiation by the presence of the ozone shield; also know as the stratospheric ozone layer. Unfortunately, the ozone shield, also known as the ozone layer, has experienced a lot of damage. Human activity has caused the ozone layer to break down. More specifically, human activity has released many pollutants into the earth's atmosphere that has created the so-called 'hole' in the ozone layer.

What sort of human activity and pollutants have been most responsible for the break down of the ozone layer? Halogens in the atmosphere, also known as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are responsible for much of the damage that has been done to the ozone layer. When these are used at regular room temperature, most CFCs act normally under normal atmospheric pressure. But when they are put under modest pressure, they become liquefied and give off heat and then becoming cold.

When these CFCs then become revaporized, they become hot. These attributes caused CFCs to become very popular and widely used. They have been used in the production of plastic foams, as heat-transfer fluids in the use of air conditioners, refrigerators, and heat pumps. They have also been used in aerosol cans for their pressurizing agents.

All of these attributes have led to the use and subsequent release of many CFCs into the earth's atmosphere. These gases eventually reached the stratosphere. In 1974, scientists discovered that many of these CFCs could potentially be very harmful to the ozone layer because of the chlorine atoms that are released.

The important work done by these scientists also revealed that the thinning out of the so-called ozone layer would result in more UV radiation being released into the earth's atmosphere, thus causing more cases of skin cancer. Furthermore, scientists revealed in 1985 evidence for the so-called 'hole' in the ozone layer, bringing further awareness to the importance of regulating the use of CFCs and taking care to restore the ozone layer.