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The Hole in the Sky: Man's Threat To the Ozone Layer
A look at the damage done to the ozone layer reveals how India and China have ignored the CFC ban, how the planned Concorde could accelerate ozone depletion, and other facts about the hole in the ozone layer. Original.
- GenresScienceNonfiction
160 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1988
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About the author
John Gribbin
385 books854 followersJohn R. Gribbin is a British science writer, an astrophysicist, and a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. His writings include quantum physics, human evolution, climate change, global warming, the origins of the universe, and biographies of famous scientists. He also writes science fiction.
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March 26, 2024
A VERY USEFUL SUMMARY OF THE OZONE LAYER/CFCs CONTROVERSY
John R. Gribbin (born 1946) is a British science writer, astrophysicist, and a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1988 book, “There is no doubt that there is a hole in the sky over Antarctica each spring, that it is produced as a result of human activities, that it was not there before 1979, and that it was ‘deeper’ (in the sense that more ozone had been removed) in 1987 than ever before. Why we should care about this, what the implications are for the future, and the steps we should take. both as individuals and as a global community, to minimize any threats to life on Earth are the subject matter of this book.” (Pg. x-xi) He adds in the ‘1990 Update,’ “The hole was less pronounced in 1988 than in 1987, with ‘only’ some 25 percent of the ozone in the stratosphere being destroyed. But in 1989 it returned in full force, almost as severe as the record-breaking years of 1987.” (Pg. xiii)
He explains, “Ozone is constantly being produced, and constantly being destroyed in the stratosphere, by interactions involving sunlight and oxygen. It is a mistake to think of it as a finite resource, like oil, that can be destroyed once and for all… What could happen is that the balance of the set of equilibrium reactions that maintain the layer may be shifted, in favor of either less ozone or more.” (Pg. 10)
He suggests, “[James Lovelock] is best known as the father of the concept of Gaia, which envisages all the living systems of the Earth as part of one organism… which has maintained a stable environment, suitable for life, for millions of years through the operation of natural feedback operations… The development of the concept of Gaia is very relevant to the current debate about the damage mankind may be doing to the atmospheric environment and the likely consequences for life on Earth.” (Pg. 42)
He recounts, “The spray-can war ran through 1975 and into 1976… the unusual stability of CFCs [chlorofluorocarbons] in the troposphere made the ‘wait and see’ approach untenable---by the time we could actually measure the depletion of the ozone caused by these compounds, there would be so many CFC molecules going around that the effects would continue to build up for decades, even if production and emissions ceased at once.” (Pg. 53)
He reports, “the September 30 [1987] announcement established beyond doubt the role of chlorine from CFCs in destroying ozone over Antarctica. No scientific effort on this scale, and probably none on any lesser scale, had ever been interpreted and made public so quickly, and there is now no excuse for further political delays and inaction, since the scientific evidence is unambiguous.” (Pg. 127)
He explains, “One consequence of a reduction in the ozone concentration at high altitudes is to reduce the warming influence of the Sun, because less solar ultraviolet is absorbed. So the Antarctic stratosphere MAY cool even more as a result of the ozone depletion. It may be that this feedback has helped the hole to grow each year, in the sense that more ozone is being destroyed. But how cold can the core region, the containment vessel, get? So much ozone is now being destroyed each spring that in the heart of the hole this effect may have reached its limit. There is simply no more ozone to be destroyed, and the stratosphere cannot get any colder. Perhaps this means that the effect has reached a natural limit. Or perhaps it means that the effect is now likely to spread outward. Instead of the hole getting deeper, in the sense that more ozone is destroyed, it may get wider, extending over a broader area. To lower altitudes.” (Pg. 153)
He states, “Both examples---the ice surge and the snow blitz---show that conditions on Earth, especially at high latitudes in both hemispheres, can change dramatically in response to very small changes, once a slower, more steady change has reached some critical balance point. Can this be reconciled with the rather comforting idea of the stability of the Earth’s ecosystem represented by the concept of Gaia?” (Pg. 158)
He summarizes, “Gaia regulates conditions automatically and unconsciously. ‘She’ is not looking after us in particular… Gaia has a core region… where life proliferates and where conditions stay much the same, even during ice ages. It is only the extremities---in her case, the polar and temperate zones---that suffer extreme changes. The doom mongers sometimes refer to the ozone layer as the weakest link in Gaia’s life-support system, and up to a point they are right. But… If the ENTIRE ozone layer were stripped away, it would be very bad news for us, and for most life forms that inhabit the surface of the Earth. But life would still go on in the oceans, and eventually Gaia would recover. She has, after all, recovered from comparable catastrophes in the past, such as the events… that led to the death of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. WE think that it would be a disaster if humankind were wiped off the face of the Earth. But look at it another way. Today, humankind is busily destroying the tropical forests that are the core of Gaia; we are changing the climate through the greenhouse effect, and we are destroying ozone in large quantities, at least over Antarctica. These effects add up to a disaster, for other forms of life on Earth, as great as the extinctions that occurred 65 million years ago. From the ‘point of view’ of Gaia, the destruction of humankind might well be a good thing.” (Pg. 161)
This book remains an excellent summary of the Ozone depletion/CFCs issue.
John R. Gribbin (born 1946) is a British science writer, astrophysicist, and a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1988 book, “There is no doubt that there is a hole in the sky over Antarctica each spring, that it is produced as a result of human activities, that it was not there before 1979, and that it was ‘deeper’ (in the sense that more ozone had been removed) in 1987 than ever before. Why we should care about this, what the implications are for the future, and the steps we should take. both as individuals and as a global community, to minimize any threats to life on Earth are the subject matter of this book.” (Pg. x-xi) He adds in the ‘1990 Update,’ “The hole was less pronounced in 1988 than in 1987, with ‘only’ some 25 percent of the ozone in the stratosphere being destroyed. But in 1989 it returned in full force, almost as severe as the record-breaking years of 1987.” (Pg. xiii)
He explains, “Ozone is constantly being produced, and constantly being destroyed in the stratosphere, by interactions involving sunlight and oxygen. It is a mistake to think of it as a finite resource, like oil, that can be destroyed once and for all… What could happen is that the balance of the set of equilibrium reactions that maintain the layer may be shifted, in favor of either less ozone or more.” (Pg. 10)
He suggests, “[James Lovelock] is best known as the father of the concept of Gaia, which envisages all the living systems of the Earth as part of one organism… which has maintained a stable environment, suitable for life, for millions of years through the operation of natural feedback operations… The development of the concept of Gaia is very relevant to the current debate about the damage mankind may be doing to the atmospheric environment and the likely consequences for life on Earth.” (Pg. 42)
He recounts, “The spray-can war ran through 1975 and into 1976… the unusual stability of CFCs [chlorofluorocarbons] in the troposphere made the ‘wait and see’ approach untenable---by the time we could actually measure the depletion of the ozone caused by these compounds, there would be so many CFC molecules going around that the effects would continue to build up for decades, even if production and emissions ceased at once.” (Pg. 53)
He reports, “the September 30 [1987] announcement established beyond doubt the role of chlorine from CFCs in destroying ozone over Antarctica. No scientific effort on this scale, and probably none on any lesser scale, had ever been interpreted and made public so quickly, and there is now no excuse for further political delays and inaction, since the scientific evidence is unambiguous.” (Pg. 127)
He explains, “One consequence of a reduction in the ozone concentration at high altitudes is to reduce the warming influence of the Sun, because less solar ultraviolet is absorbed. So the Antarctic stratosphere MAY cool even more as a result of the ozone depletion. It may be that this feedback has helped the hole to grow each year, in the sense that more ozone is being destroyed. But how cold can the core region, the containment vessel, get? So much ozone is now being destroyed each spring that in the heart of the hole this effect may have reached its limit. There is simply no more ozone to be destroyed, and the stratosphere cannot get any colder. Perhaps this means that the effect has reached a natural limit. Or perhaps it means that the effect is now likely to spread outward. Instead of the hole getting deeper, in the sense that more ozone is destroyed, it may get wider, extending over a broader area. To lower altitudes.” (Pg. 153)
He states, “Both examples---the ice surge and the snow blitz---show that conditions on Earth, especially at high latitudes in both hemispheres, can change dramatically in response to very small changes, once a slower, more steady change has reached some critical balance point. Can this be reconciled with the rather comforting idea of the stability of the Earth’s ecosystem represented by the concept of Gaia?” (Pg. 158)
He summarizes, “Gaia regulates conditions automatically and unconsciously. ‘She’ is not looking after us in particular… Gaia has a core region… where life proliferates and where conditions stay much the same, even during ice ages. It is only the extremities---in her case, the polar and temperate zones---that suffer extreme changes. The doom mongers sometimes refer to the ozone layer as the weakest link in Gaia’s life-support system, and up to a point they are right. But… If the ENTIRE ozone layer were stripped away, it would be very bad news for us, and for most life forms that inhabit the surface of the Earth. But life would still go on in the oceans, and eventually Gaia would recover. She has, after all, recovered from comparable catastrophes in the past, such as the events… that led to the death of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. WE think that it would be a disaster if humankind were wiped off the face of the Earth. But look at it another way. Today, humankind is busily destroying the tropical forests that are the core of Gaia; we are changing the climate through the greenhouse effect, and we are destroying ozone in large quantities, at least over Antarctica. These effects add up to a disaster, for other forms of life on Earth, as great as the extinctions that occurred 65 million years ago. From the ‘point of view’ of Gaia, the destruction of humankind might well be a good thing.” (Pg. 161)
This book remains an excellent summary of the Ozone depletion/CFCs issue.
April 21, 2016
Perhaps one of the first serious popular science books on the hole in the ozone layer caused by CFC and so on the greenhose effect as the CFC are powerful greenhouse gases
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews