2007-01-14 22:10:02 · 5 answers · asked by angelique_091793 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Primary & Secondary Education
High up in the atmosphere, in a region called the stratosphere between 19 and 30 km above the Earth's surface, ozone is constantly being produced and destroyed naturally. This ozone layer filters out UV rays from the Sun and protects life on Earth. Usually there is a fine balance between the build up and loss of ozone. However, in the 1970s it was discovered that man-made chemicals called CFCs were destroying the ozone in the ozone layer.
CFCs contain chlorine which reacts with ozone at the low temperatures high up in the atmosphere. Once the chlorine has broken up one ozone molecule, it is freed to repeat the process again and again, up to 100,000 times. Thankfully, we have banned the use of new CFCs since 1995. However, because CFCs remain in the air for a long time, they will continue to affect the ozone layer well into the 21st century.
2007-01-14 22:24:36 · answer #1 · answered by elvisjohn 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
There has always been a hole in the ozone layer around the earth. Various things effect the size of it ranging from solar winds to volcanoes to (allegedly) aerosol cans. However, we have only had the technology to track the ozone layer for a short time. Perhaps as we learn more we will be better able to fully understand what is occurring up there.
2007-01-15 06:19:44 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Look i dont know how is the exact name is written in english but i think its like chlorofthoranthrax.Sry about this word...But its a substance,a mix actually that is contained in sprays,in the liquid that we put in the frige of the car.After being released in the atmosphere it heats and it gets higher to the ozon layer.there the chlorium that is containd in them reacts with the ozon and it "breaks" it into oxygen and other gases.This way the layer is coming to be thinner and thinner.In the last previous years companies try and change the substance the use ni sprays with others less environmental-harming.Bye
2007-01-15 06:21:22 · answer #3 · answered by dirtynektar 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Chlorofluorocarbons(CFC's) are catalysts; they can regulate and change substances without being changed themselves. One CFC molecule can destroy ozone molecules in threehundredfold or a thousandfold times three.
Freons from old-style fridges (a more general terms for CFC's and their variants)
Halon gases do a great deal of damage a thousand times more than do CFC's. (From few brands of fire extinguishers)
Aerosols from gas-based or volatile perfumes pressurized in cans
2007-01-15 06:19:11 · answer #4 · answered by Lordimpalerthe 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
CFC's
2007-01-15 06:12:55 · answer #5 · answered by lawrencecoe7 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋