Survey Question: Can we ever recover the depleted Ozone Layer?

I am conducting a survey for our school project. So it would be very helpful if you provide me with your educational level, experience, background and age.





Do you think we'd ever be able to recover the depleted Ozone layer?

Survey Question: Can we ever recover the depleted Ozone Layer?
cj g is so far wrong its not funny. I cannot understand how people can confuse GW and the supposed hole in the ozone layer and then pretend to give advice on the matter. It just goes to show how people are ill informed about the environment when they think that they are absolutely right and demand that you change your ways to suit their way of thinking.
Reply:Refrigeration Engineer almost retired.


Its takes 45 years for gases released in the northern hemisphere to drift to the Equator, and to be punched up to the upper atmosphere by tropical storms, and then drift to the north pole. Action of uv (ultra Violet) in sunlight early in Feb at temps of minus 60 c causes reactions which deplete the ozone layer for a month or so. The rest of the year it recovers and grows back to almost normal. We don't know why no one tells you all this. Early summer sunbathing is more dangerous than late summer sunbathing.


Obviously cfc's released in 1962 are now reaching the poles.


Back then hair sprays had cfc's and ships coming in for refit just blew off 3 or 4 tons of cfc's, before docking.


China and India are now using cfc's in the same way that Europe did, saying, you had your turn, now it's our turn.


That is very depressing.
Reply:Yes, the ozone layer is constantly repleneshing itself as ultraviolet light breaks down oxygen in the upper atmosphere. The Earth has probably had a strong ozone layer for as long as it has had oxygen and will continue to do so. The Human impact on ozone levels is minimal, if not non-existent. The theory that CFC's deplete ozone is based solely on the fact that CFC's contain chlorine, which can break down ozone. CFC's are very heavy molecules and are unlikely to be able to travel into the upper atmosphere. Further human emissions of CFC's even at their peak were insignificant compared to chlorine emissions from natural sources.





1) The ozone is thinnest above the south pole, which is inconsistent with the expected atmospheric mixing of human CFC's, CFC's are too heavy to be transported 40 miles above the Earth, and even if they did, they should congregate and do the most damage in the Northern Hemisphere where the density of use is highest





2) The hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica is fluctuates throughout the year, thinning and thickening and has done so for as long as observation has been made.





3) The thinnest area of the Ozone layer above Antarctica is located above the volcanic island of Mt Erebus which actively spews out over 1000 tonnes of superheated Chlorine gas per DAY! Mt Erebus alone puts out more chlorine per year than human activities at their peak put out in a decade! More thant this Mt Erebus is not the only active chlorine producing volcano out there. If the ozone layer can survive this, as it has throughout geological history, it should continue to do so just fine.
Reply:The ozone layer is already recovering according to recent reports thanks to the reduction in the use of fluorocarbons. Heard this a few months ago.





PS don't confuse global warming with ozone hole: two different things