What is an ozone hole and what can it threaten?

Recently, the public is increasingly concerned with environmental issues - protecting the environment, animals, reducing the number of harmful and dangerous emissions. For sure, everyone also heard about what an ozone hole is, and that there are a lot of them in the modern stratosphere of the Earth. And there is. Modern anthropogenic activities and technological development endanger the existence of animals and plants on Earth, as well as the very life of people.

What is an ozone hole?

The ozone layer is the protective envelope of the blue planet, which is located in the stratosphere. Its height is about twenty-five kilometers from the earth's surface. And this layer is formed from oxygen, which under the influence of solar radiation undergoes chemical transformations. The local decrease in the concentration of ozone (in the common people this is the well-known "hole") is currently caused by many reasons. First of all, it is, of course, the activities of a person (both production and everyday). There are, however, opinions that the ozone layer is destroyed under the influence of exclusively natural phenomena not related to humans.

Anthropogenic impact

Having understood what is an ozone hole, it is necessary to find out what kind of human activity contributes to its appearance. First of all, it's aerosols. Every day we use deodorants, hair lacquers, toilet waters with spray guns and often do not think that this has a detrimental effect on the protective layer of the planet. The fact is that the compounds that are present in the usual balloons (including bromine and chlorine), readily react with oxygen atoms. Therefore, the ozone layer is destroyed, turning after such chemical reactions into completely useless (and often harmful) substances.

Destructive compounds for the ozone layer are also present in the air conditioning heaters that save in the summer heat, as well as in the cooling equipment. The widely developed industrial activity of man also weakens the earthly protection. It is depressed by industrial emissions into the atmosphere, water (some of the harmful substances evaporates over time), pollute the stratosphere and exhaust gases of cars. The last, as the statistics shows, every year becomes more and more. The ozone layer and rocket fuel have a negative effect on the ozone layer .

Natural influence

Knowing what an ozone hole is, you also need to have an idea of how many are above the surface of our planet. The answer is disappointing: there are many gaps in the earth's protection. They are small and often not a hole, but a very thin remaining layer of ozone. However, there are two huge unprotected spaces. This is the Arctic and Antarctic ozone hole.

The stratosphere above the poles of the Earth almost does not contain a protective layer at all. What is the reason for this? There after all there are no cars and industrial productions. It's all about natural influence, the second reason for the destruction of the ozone layer. Polar vortices arise when the warm and cold air streams collide. These gas formations in large quantities contain nitric acid, which under the influence of very low temperatures and reacts with ozone.

Ecology began to sound alarm only in the twentieth century. The destructive ultraviolet rays, which break through to the ground without encountering an ozone barrier, can cause skin cancer in humans, as well as the death of many animals and plants (especially marine animals). Thus, international organizations banned almost all of the compounds that destroy the protective layer of our planet. It is believed that even if mankind abruptly stops any negative impact on ozone in the stratosphere, the currently existing holes will disappear very soon. This is because the harmful substances Freon, which have already made their way up, are able to exist independently in the atmosphere for dozens of years.