Thread: Hole in the ozone layer + air pollution

Now before I start I would like to say, this is just something I daydream about and don't know if it could seriously work (hence me asking here).

Because of human activity, there is now a hole in the ozone layer. This blocks less rays from the sun which heats up the earth. But, isn't one of the pollutants that is produced near ground level(in the air we breath) ozone, which is bad for us? If there was a machine that could do it, couldn't the ozone gases that are currently harming us be collected and then redistributed via aircraft in the upper atmosphere into the ozone layer which would help towards diminishing the hole and also make our air cleaner?

Now I don't know if this is possible or even makes sense, as I said before this is just a thought I came up with from what I already know about these topics. So is this possible?

The amount of ozone in the lower atmosphere is miniscule, and yes harmful to us [I understand]. I do not think your solution is practical, all the machinery would probably generate more pollution and negate any benefit. Ozone naturally rises, though takes a while to find the layer.
THe hole? yep it's at the poles where the beta angle [that of the sun] is so low that the sun's harmful rays hardly [if at all] reach the ground.

THere are occasional holes [I understand] over large cities, that's the price city dwellers pay for their gas guzzling 4x4's (well not all of it's due to that..).

And not all city dwellers drive gas-guzzling SUVs...

How thick is the ozone layer ?

I have been told that it is just under a centimetre thick. Can anyone shed some light on this ?

And furthermore, I wonder what the possibility of deflecting any of the uv using powerful orbiting super-electro-magnets ?

How thick is it? I have not heard that it has ever passed an IQ test...

Quite thin but do remember atmospheric disturbances winds etc ensure it's not really a layer - My understanding is that it is thinly dispersed molecules spread out over many tens of thousands of feet, not a 1CM thick clearly defined sphere at all. As to how thick it would be if it was all 'together' I to have heard it would be very thin, remember also that atmospheric pressure is much lower there than at sea level so ther's even 'less' if you see what I mean.

As to the other part of your query, I'll assume you spilt coffee over the keyboard and that's a random typo. - Magnets to deflect UV - if Maxwell couldn't do what chance do you stand?

Originally Posted by Razgriz

Because of human activity, there is now a hole in the ozone layer. This blocks less rays from the sun which heats up the earth.

Ozone depletion does not cause global warming.

Originally Posted by The Matt

Originally Posted by Razgriz

Because of human activity, there is now a hole in the ozone layer. This blocks less rays from the sun which heats up the earth.

Ozone depletion does not cause global warming.

Since it likely that many people may believe to the contrary could you please state a source where it may be individually assessed.

N.B I am not saying your are wrong, indeed to my humble understanding the ozone layer is a barrier to UV light, and I have certainly not it authoritively reffered to as a global warming component.

But a one line dismissal is hardly a fair debate...

The ozone hole causes higher levels of UVB radiation, which while harmful to life do not cause the warming of the earth. The small amount of UVB present in sunlight could cause only insignificant warming.

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/science/effects.html

Global warming is believed to be caused by CO2 and other gasses acting like a blanket. They are more transparent to the incoming high frequency radiation emmited by the sun (visible light and near infra-red, with only a very small proportion of UV) than they are to the lower frequency radiation re-emitted by the earth, so the problem relates to how much energy can leave earth, rather than how much is entering.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_...the_atmosphere
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_radiation

The only link I have been able to find with climate change is a suggestion that ozone depletion and increased UVB may affect the numbers of organisms such as plankton that are thought to act as carbon sinks.

http://www.rsc.org/delivery/_Article...b211913g&Iss=1

"I have a plan to take over the world. We release chemicals into the atmosphere that destroyes the "Ozone layer", that protects people from UV radiation, and people will start getting skin cancer and die"
"Sir, that has already happened"
"oh shit, well lets highjack some nukes and hold the world in terror"

Humanities activity is insignifican in the big picture. it would most liky take less than a GM to fix the atmosphere on its own. Often this kind of things are blown up by politicans to gain extra votes, nothing sells like nature stuff people think they are helping but in reality dont understand anything about. They are just followers and not concerned about nature at all

Dunno if he wants to destroy the world, but I am sure that Matt did a great work explaining how ozone not really effect global warming here. He has a big "+" in my book.

Originally Posted by Zelos

"I have a plan to take over the world. We release chemicals into the atmosphere that destroyes the "Ozone layer", that protects people from UV radiation, and people will start getting skin cancer and die"
"Sir, that has already happened"
"oh shit, well lets highjack some nukes and hold the world in terror"

Humanities activity is insignifican in the big picture. it would most liky take less than a GM to fix the atmosphere on its own. Often this kind of things are blown up by politicans to gain extra votes, nothing sells like nature stuff people think they are helping but in reality dont understand anything about. They are just followers and not concerned about nature at all

If we were all to die the earth would have no problem fixing our mistakes, so yes, we are insignificant, but I like to look at the problems with the view that we might still want to be alive, lol.

And, I know that global warming isn't directly caused by the ozone layer but it does affect it. Couldn't we even go so far(the machines(if possible) could be solar powered) as to put more ozone than we originally had so we could thicken it. This would deflect more light and maybe be able to keep the earth cooler while we tried to fix our emissions dilemma.