Healing Our World Commentary: Can Life Survive Earth's Depleted Ozone Layer?

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Can Life Survive Earth's Depleted Ozone Layer?

Earth, give me back your pure gifts,
the towers of silence, which rose
from the solemnity of their roots.
I want to go back to being what I have not been,
and learn to go back from such deeps
that amongst all natural things
I could live or not live; it does not matter
to be one stone more, the dark stone,
the pure stone which the river bears away.
-- Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet

We humans have such a hard time believing that our actions can affect anything on a planetary scale. After all, our resources seem limitless. The ocean appears to go on forever, the sky is beautiful, yet out of reach, and when we vacation in a national park, it seems impossible that our one car could be harming all that grandeur.

But for the last 20 years, evidence has been mounting that we are dramatically affecting a vital attribute of our planet without which, nearly all life would perish.

The ozone layer seems an unlikely candidate for human impact. Located in the stratosphere of the Earth's atmosphere in a layer from 11 to 16 miles (17 to 26 kilometers) above sea level, the ozone layer keeps about 99 percent of the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation (UV) from reaching the Earth's surface.

Southern Hemisphere Ozone Hole on November 16, 2000 (Photo courtesy U.S. National Oceanic and Aeronautics Administration (NOAA)

Ozone is constantly being created and destroyed by the very thing that it protects us from - UV. As long as the rate at which ozone is being created and destroyed by UV is fairly constant, then the average concentration of ozone in the atmosphere should be relatively constant.

Consider the beauty and symmetry of this process for a moment. The UV could destroy all life on the surface, but it is the UV that is responsible for the creation of the ozone that blocks UV! The Earth's life support systems are filled with beautiful miracles such as this.

This UV filter is vital to survival on Earth. Mars has no ozone layer and so its surface is most likely sterilized of all life as we know it.

On Earth, this miraculous layer makes it possible for humans and other life to exist on the surface. It helps protect life from damaging sunburn, cataracts, skin cancer, eye cancer and damage to the immune system. It also prevents the molecular oxygen that we need in the lower atmosphere from being converted to ozone, which is a harmful air pollutant when inhaled.

Here is another amazing attribute of magical ozone - on the Earth's surface, ozone is a dangerous air pollutant, yet in the stratosphere, it makes life possible by blocking UV.

The Earth's cycles are delicately balanced and work until they are overloaded. But human activities are overloading the atmospheric cycles, resulting in ozone being destroyed at a rate that is faster than it can be created. We have been seeing the disastrous effects of this on the Earth's surface for a number of years.

Skin cancer rates have increased worldwide, especially in areas where the ozone layer has thinned. Even fish are experiencing skin problems due to ozone depletion.

British researchers recently discovered that fish in the North Sea are suffering from severe sunburn and blistering of their skin from increased UV because of the thinned ozone layer above that region. The young fish, which breathe through their skin until their gills develop enough, are particularly affected because they don't yet have scales which deflect the UV. The Plymouth Marine Laboratory in England said, "These fish have no protection against the rays because they never needed to evolve one until man began to influence the atmosphere."

Repairable 1998 Jeep Cherokee (Photo courtesy SAS of Luxemburg, Wisconsin)

The situation is of such grave worldwide concern that the United Nations Environment Program has created the Ozone Secretariat for the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and later the Montreal Protocol governing the emission of substances that destroy the ozoen layer.

CFCs used to be found as propellants in hair sprays and deodorants. In accordance with these international agreements, the CFCs have mostly been replaced in the United States, but many products still contain the harmful chemicals. Read the labels carefully on any spray product you buy.

The chlorine in CFCs is what is destroying the ozone. When it reaches the stratosphere, it breaks up the precious ozone molecules. The amounts of ozone destroying chemicals we are putting into the atmosphere could be destroying ozone at a rate greater than it is being created. No one knows for sure.

The deadly pesticide methyl bromide has also been found to destroy ozone. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun a phase out plan for this deadly chemical which has been harming individuals for many years at the Earth's surface. Now we discover that it is harming us on a planetary scale.

The list of ozone depleting substances is very long and regulatory action is slow at best. Governments are hesitant to do anything that would force industries to retool their plants or redesign their manufacturing processes, even if all life on Earth is at stake.

"Daily UV Hazard Map from the National Weather Service (map courtesy National Weather Service)

Australia, the country closest to the Antarctic ozone hole, has the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world. Two out of every three Australians living to the age of 75 can expect to develop some type of skin cancer.

The Australian Cancer Society estimates that this year, more than 75,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the Australian population and more than 30,000 people will die as a result of cancer. Most of these will be the result of the more than 270,000 cases of skin cancer that develop each year in Australia.

Ozone holes, areas of significantly decreased concentrations of stratospheric ozone, are becoming increasingly common. One has now been discovered over the Arctic. Little is understood of their origin and movement, but a consensus is growing among scientists that our human activities are responsible.

The time is now to immediately stop producing all ozone depleting chemicals, regardless of the cost to industry. There should be no discussion since the fate of our planet's atmosphere may hang in the balance.

And hang on to that old refrigerator as long as you can, and get it fixed if you have to. And be sure your car air conditioner is repaired only by a reputable and authorized mechanic.

Unless we do something soon, our children may never be able to go outside in the sun without head-to-toe protection. My wife and I have a baby on the way, and we would like to bring our child into a world where the feeling of the Sun on her or his face is a cause for wonder - not fear.

RESOURCES

1. For the daily forecast of UV danger, visit: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/forecasts/
You can see a daily UV Hazard Map from the National Weather Service at: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/iwdspg1.html

2. For information on the Antarctic ozone hole, visit: http://www.epa.gov/docs/ozone/science/hole/holehome.html

3. The EPA's Ozone Depletion website can be seen at: http://www.epa.gov/ozone/

4. For a detailed list of ozone-depleting substances, go to: http://www.epa.gov/ozone/ods.html

5. For help finding out how you can help, visit Greenpeace's Ozone campaign at: http://www.greenpeace.org/%7Eozone/

6. For a report on the relationship of ozone depletion to skin cancer, visit: http://www.ciesin.org/TG/HH/ozskin1.html

7. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them that the time is now to start mandating building materials recycling. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html or you can search by state at http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html. You can also find your representatives at http://congress.nw.dc.us/innovate/index.html.

[Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found wondering what kind of world his child will enter. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at http://www.healingourworld.com]