Where is the Ozone Layer?
What is the Ozone Layer made of?
What is the Ozone Layer?
- The Ozone layer is a layer of oxygen gas with the atoms put together in a special way.
- It is found about 19-30km up in the stratosphere.
- The Ozone layer is often in the news because humans are damaging it and we, plants and animals would die without it.
- We damage it with the chemicals that we use, this could be prevented.
The Different Types of UV Radiation
What does it do?
How can UV radiation harm us?
The
- UV causes our skin to tan, but too much exposure causes it to burn
- Every time your skin gets burned there is a higher risk of you developing skin cancer
- UV rays are also dangerous for your eyes
- They cause many people to go blind
- This is why it is important to wear suncream and sunglasses when you are out in the sun for a long time
The Ozone Layer is very important to all life on Earth because it absorbs most of the harmful UV radiation from the sun (all of UV-c and most of UV-b). The UV-a radiation that the Ozone Layer does not absorb lots of is, not very harmful to us if we are not constantly exposed. But the small amount of harmful radiation that is let through can harm us if we are exposed to it for too long.
Ozone can be bad
Some emissions that we produce lead to a chemical reaction with sunlight to produce Ozone at ground-level. Ozone is toxic to us when we breathe it in but normally it is high up in the stratosphere. The ground-level Ozone is the main component of smog in cities but as it can be transported long distances by wind there can also be high Ozone levels in rural areas. This Ozone can harm the environment and particularly sensitive ecosystems. Children are at greatest risk when exposed to Ozone because their lungs are still developing.
Ozone
CFCs
- CFC stands for Chloro-Fluoro-Carbons
- CFCs are the most likely gas to damage the Ozone Layer
- They are used in:
- Spray Cans
- Refrigerators
- Air conditioning systems
- Fire Extinguishers
- They are used because they are not poisonous to us and they are not flammable, but they destroy to Ozone Layer
- Most countries have stopped using new CFCs but many scientists believe that we should stop using the old ones too.
What is the hole in the Ozone Layer?
How do the CFCs do it?
- Every spring a hole in the Layer of harmless Ozone as big as the USA opens over Antarctica, a smaller one develops over the Arctic at the North Pole
- This is the first signs that the Ozone Layer is getting thinner all over
- Scientists first discovered this in 1979
- It is the chemicals called CFCs that we use that are making the hole in the Ozone
Layer
What effects does this have on us?
- The Ozone Layer is thinning
- But this means that more UV radiation is going to be let through
- This then means that there will be more cases of skin cancer and blindness because this is what the UV radiation causes
- If holes appear in place where people live this could be very dangerous as there will be no protection for them against harmful UV rays
- Also it will have a great effect on the wildlife because they can only tolerate a certain amount of UV light and they have no way of shielding themselves
- UV rays can go through water and kill the plankton at the bottom of the ocean, this forms the base of the oceanic food chain, so it could kill all life in the ocean
- A similar effect could happen on land
- But we can stop this from happening
What do we need to do?
By Jonnie James
Generally we all need to be more environmentally friendly. But to stop the hole in the Ozone Layer from developing we should use alternative ways to produce our energy such as wind turbines and solar panels. But more importantly we can try to not use products which contain CFCs because these are the main reason the Ozone layer is thinning.