Ozone Depletion and Ozone Hole - Assignment Example

When chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are the chemicals used in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems, cleaning solvents, etc. destroy the ozone layer; depletion of the ozone layer is said to have occurred. CFCs that are used in these processes discharge harmful chlorine substances into the atmosphere and it is this chlorine that is responsible for the destruction of the ozone layer (ozone depletion). When the chlorines are discharged into the atmosphere, they break down the bonds and molecules that hold the ozone layer together and due to the fact that the reaction of chlorine with ozone does not have any impact, they have the potential of destroying a large amount of the ozone for a very long time.

Due to the problems that the depletion of the ozone layer have caused, the Montreal Protocol was set up in 1987 and it is an international agreement that bans substances that deplete the ozone layer and the Montreal Protocol urges countries to do what they can to reduce the emission of chemical substances that play a part in the destruction of the ozone layer (ozone depletion). When there is a thinning of the ozone layer, an ozone hole would be formed and this would mean that there would be an increase in the ultraviolet radiation that strikes the surface of the earth and this could make people develop skin cancers and cataracts and it could also damage plants.

The ozone hole is an area of the upper atmosphere that there is no ozone layer or the area where the ozone layer has gone thin, and cases, where there is a thin ozone layer, are rather bizarre. The ozone hole builds up at the beginning of the Antarctic spring (August to October) (Nash) and thickens after several months and it was fully discovered in 1985 (Ozone depletion).