Cure and prevention

Two responses are natural when a new problem has been identified: cure and prevention.

When the problem is the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer, the corresponding questions are:

Remedies have been investigated that could (i) remove CFCs selectively from our atmosphere, (ii) intercept ozone-depleting chlorine before much depletion has taken place, or (iii) replace the ozone lost in the stratosphere (perhaps by shipping the ozone from cities that have too much smog or by making new ozone). Because ozone reacts strongly with other molecules, as noted above, it is too unstable to be made elsewhere (e.g., in the smog of cities) and transported to the stratosphere. When the huge volume of the Earth's atmosphere and the magnitude of global stratospheric ozone depletion are carefully considered, approaches to cures quickly become much too expensive, impractical, and potentially damaging to the global environment. Prevention involves the internationally agreed-upon Montreal Protocol and its Amendments and Adjustments, which call for elimination of the production and use of the CFCs and other ozone-damaging compounds within the next few years. As a result, the ozone layer is expected to recover over the next fifty years or so as the atmospheric concentrations of CFCs and other ozone depleting compounds slowly decay.

The current understanding of ozone depletion and its relation to humankind is discussed in detail by the leading scientists in the world's ozone research community in the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 1994. The answers to the common questions posed below are based upon that understanding and on the information given in earlier WM0/UNEP reports.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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