Category: Ozone

Staying current for Chapter 5 { Ozone Contents } Earth Portal section on Antarctic ozone hole  2012 March 12.  F. Sherwood Rowland, Cited Aerosols’s Danger, Is Dead at 84 | By Felicity Barringer, The NY Times. Excerpt: F. Sherwood Rowland, whose discovery in 1974 of the danger that aerosols posed to the ozone layer was initially met with disdain […]

Staying current for Chapter 4 { Ozone Contents } 2023-03-15. The Brilliant Inventor Who Made Two of History’s Biggest Mistakes. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/15/magazine/cfcs-inventor.html] By Steven Johnson, The New York Times. Excerpt: While The Times praised him as “one of the nation’s outstanding chemists” in its obituary, today [Thomas Midgley Jr.] is best known for the terrible consequences of […]

Staying current for Chapter 3 See non-chronological resources for this chapter. { Ozone Contents } 2023-07-15. Why Sunscreen Is the Only Anti-Aging Product You Need. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/15/well/live/sunscreen-aging-skin-care.html] By Dana G. Smith, The New York Times. Excerpt: …Dr. Frey said that as much as 80 percent of the skin changes we associate with age are actually caused by the […]

Staying current for Chapter 2 { Ozone Contents } 2023-05-30. Plants Leave Chemical Fingerprints on an Ozone-Depleting Gas. [https://eos.org/research-spotlights/plants-leave-chemical-fingerprints-on-an-ozone-depleting-gas] By Sarah Stanley, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Methyl chloride (CH3Cl) is one of the most common chlorine-based gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Along with related chemicals, it depletes the ozone layer, exposing life on the planet to more of the Sun’s ultraviolet […]

Staying current for Chapter 1 { Ozone Contents } 24 December 1997. Ozone Depletion FAQSample Question–Subject: 1.3) How does the composition of the atmosphere change with altitude? (Or, how can CFC’s get up to the stratosphere when they are heavier than air?) Answer: In the earth’s troposphere and stratosphere, most _stable_ chemical species are “well-mixed” – […]

Chapter 11 { Ozone Contents } There is another health problem resulting from changing levels of ozone in the atmosphere, but this involves increasing concentrations of ozone near the ground. Due to its highly reactive nature, breathing ozone is quite harmful. It affects your health and the environment. I. Effects of Tropospheric Ozone On Health […]

Chapter 10 { Ozone Contents } I. Ground Level Ozone Although most of the Earth’s ozone is found in the stratosphere, pollution created by human activity has brought increasing ozone concentrations much closer to home in the air we breathe. Breathing ozone can irritate and inflame the nose, throat, and lungs, and affect the body’s […]

Chapter 9 { Ozone Contents } I. Global Agreements Industrial states and countries took action quickly to curb chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) use starting in 1977. The first global meeting was held in 1985 at the Vienna Convention. Although no formal global actions were agreed upon, the international community supported immediate scientific investigations.  Two years later (1987), […]

Apps for Digital Earth Watch investigations and challenges Images to use with AnalyzingDigitalImages are in the materials lists of each investigation or challenge. Apps for A Changing Cosmos investigations Investigations that require image processing apps are marked with an asterisk in the Table of Contents for A Changing Cosmos. Links to required images are in […]

Chapter 8 { Ozone Contents } Accurate measurements of stratospheric ozone identified the ozone problem in the mid-1980s.  Accurate measurements are still needed to learn more about the complicated atmospheric chemistry involved and to monitor how the ozone layer responds as CFCs are phased out. The longest continuous record of ozone measurements extends almost 80 […]