One of the events that got me interested in solar research occurred when a massive solar flare shredded the ozone layer in the early 1970s. The then Skylab orbital observatory reported up to 80 percent of the ozone layer "eroded" by one single super flare (class 4B optical, and X 9 x-ray). The event also aroused my curiosity regarding the ozone layer and its importance for Earth - or rather the organisms that inhabit the Earth.
By now most people know that ozone O3 - is a form of oxygen - and found from 6- 32 miles above Earth's surface or at the lower edge of the stratosphere. It basically is critical in protecting life forms from the effects of the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Take that layer away and you will behold sunburns the likes of which would rival 20 hours straight in a tanning bed, not to mention an explosion of skin cancers. Minus the ozone layer, in other words, life as we know it would not exist.
So, it is important what happens to that layer.
This ground breaking research by Susan Solomon and her team discovered that these chemicals - often released via hair sprays, spray deodorants etc. - reduced stratospheric ozone concentrations all over the world. At that time (1986) industries also used CFCs in refrigeration and dry cleaning. The reduction was observed to be especially bad over Antarctica hence the term "ozone hole".
One by product of the work was to explicate the processes underlying ozone hole formation. It was known, for example, that CFCs destroyed Antarctic ozone every spring. But only later was it revealed that the process begins even before winter. It commences, in fact, at the summer solstice or shortly thereafter when the Sun rises causing light to strike the ambient CFCs, breaking its chemical dons and freeing chlorine (e.g. CCl3F → CCl2F. + Cl. )
The freed chlorine atoms (at the end of the right side of the above equation) then strip the oxygen (O2) from the ozone (O3) to form other chemicals destroying the ozone itself. This leads to the emergence of an "ozone hole" which generally reaches peak area in October.
Solomon et al more recent research can be accessed at this link:
http://bit.ly/science-ozone
It shows the extent to which changes in atmospheric chemistry and human activity are inextricably linked. Specifically, the authors show how public policy efforts i.e. (to ban CFCs) over decades have paid off by shrinking the Antarctic ozone by more than 4 million square miles (a 16 percent decrease) since 2000.
Meanwhile the sea ice in the Antarctic fell to the lowest
levels (yes again!) in recorded history, as did sea ice in the Arctic, helping to ensure a future in which
rising sea levels could flood coastal cities. And Greenland has been lending a
hand to that same future, starting 2023 with temperatures unmatched in at least 1,000 years and still setting new temperature records in July. Worse yet,
that’s just to begin down a list that increasingly seems unending.
In certain parts of the United States, the summer of 2023 was literally a hell on Earth and, as a New York Times piece headlined it recently, also “A Summer Preview of the Future; Floods, Fires, and Stifling Heat. It felt like the opening minutes of a disaster movie.”
So what's different from the 1985 tackling of the ozone hole? First, the climate threat has not been taken seriously especially by the young.
This ignorant tyrant has upended U.S. environmental policy with cynical, short-sighted moves that will have lasting implications for this country, and the planet. With a flurry of bogus executive orders- that have exceeded the limits of presidential power- Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry.
Trump has also frozen funds appropriated by Congress for clean energy projects, taking particular aim at wind energy, the country’s largest source of renewable power. He has stopped approvals for wind farms on public land and in federal waters and has threatened to block projects on private land.
He's also abandoned efforts to reduce global warming, even as the world has reached record levels of heat that scientists say is driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels. After all, on Inauguration Day, Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, making it the only nation to walk away.
Process that! The only nation to walk away. Bottom line: given the climate havoc he's wrought, the world and particularly the younger generations inhabiting it, will be left to live fraught and destitute lives as the worst of climate change transpires between now and 2100. The critical time threshold to act on global warming has now likely passed and there's little to do except try to help the coming generations- and other peoples of planet Earth - to prepare as best they can.
Five Major Climate Tipping Point Manifestations & What They Mean
Fig. 2: A 2-space gasket
