Save The Ozone for a Better Tomorrow (Mar 21 2020)

Hello fellow reader! My name is Saahithi and today you will be reading about the dying ozone layer. This is a problem that is quite big and I would like to tell you about it.

First, let’s review what the ozone layer even is. The ozone layer is a layer on the earth (in the stratosphere) that protects our earth from burning. It contains ozone molecules that are blue in color! You see, the ozone layer blocks some UV light (sun rays) from coming on our earth. If the ozone layer was not there, all the sun rays, light and heat would fall on our earth making it too hot and the planet would become a big bowl of fire soup(It would melt. Really!). Since the ozone layer is there, our planet is not all that hot and the temperature is just right. The ozone blocks 98% of the sunlight and does a really good job of helping our planet! Too much UV can cause skin cancer, genetic damage, cataracts(blurry vision), and immune system suppression! We might want to make a note to say thank you to the ozone layer!

So now you know what the ozone layer is and you have the gist(summary). You know that it is very important and if it was not there, we would all have really bad sunburns(Like, really bad.Like, super bad!).

So now, to the actual problem: the ozone layer is depleting(dying)! A hole in the ozone was discovered in the Antarctic in 1985. This so-called “hole” is merely a patch where 60% of the ozone has been depleted. And that’s not it! In other places around the world, there has been a loss of about 20% of the ozone. People are working on making the ozone quantity by the Antarctic back to its regular amount, and hopefully, by 2050, that is exactly what will happen.

Now I will tell you how this happens. There is this chemical called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which is a mix of carbon, chlorine, and fluorine, that is polluting the air more and more. The CFCs kill the molecules that make the ozone layer. This is how that happens: The UV light breaks apart the CFCs into substances including chlorine. The chlorine then reacts to the oxygen in the ozone and rips them apart.CFCs are mostly found in refrigerants, aerosol, and plastic products. Out of 10,000,000 molecules, only 3 molecules are ozone.But the thing is, 1 molecule of chlorine can kill 100,000 ozone molecules! There is also a chemical called bromine that does the same as chlorine.

And that’s not the only thing killing ozone! There is also more Carbon Monoxide(CO) getting into the air. The CO is coming from things like factories, cars, and other things that produce gas. And the thing is that CO is not only bad for us, but it is also bad for the ozone layer which protects us, so if the protector is dying, that means it is 2x bad for us(OMG!)!! The CO is also causing the loss of ozone but not as bad as the CFCs.

So now to the point I have been trying to make. When we look within ourselves, we, mankind are the reason for the ozone depletion. We are the ones using plastic, burning tires, using so much gas, giving out so much smoke from factories and fossil fuels, and giving out so much unhealthy greenhouse gases, and many more! So please try and lower the usage of gas, by not burning tires or plastic and not use plastic products or arousals. Try to use more public transport so more people will be transported at once without giving out so much gas.

So you see? This is not good for the planet and we, now knowing about the problem have to act upon it. The holes are getting bigger and bigger wherever there are more CFCs and CO! I hope now, you will be more conscious of the gases that are being given out. The future depends on what we do right now.