Ozone Depletion in the Arctic
The reappearance of the ozone hole over Antarctica has been a hot topic for scientist around the world. A few of these scientists are the atmospheric physicist Richard D. McPeters and several of his colleagues at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. The ozone hole showed up earlier than expected, and it was wider and thinner. It appeared in mid-August, about two weeks ahead of schedule, and on September 19 reached the record size of 10.5 million square miles, more than three and a half times the area of the forty-eight contiguous United States that is a frightening statistic man. The hole actually is a thinning of the ozone layer--was also at a near-record problem. Ozone, a bluish gas whose molecules are made up of three oxygen atoms, occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere, where it acts as a kind of cosmic sun-block, protecting life on earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. The sun's rays destroy some ozone, but there was no real loss because ozone regenerates itself from stray oxygen atoms and molecules. At least since 1985, however, that delicate balance has been upset. An Antarctic ozone hole now forms from September to November each year, caused by man-made pollutants that destroy ozone in the atmosphere. The hole has been getting progressively larger. The culprits are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), once used as coolants. The chlorine atoms from CFCs react with ozone and destroy it. Sunlight splits off chlorine from CFCs, and the chlorine-ozone reaction takes place most readily on the surface of ice crystals. Thus when the sun returns in the Antarctic spring ice crystals that had formed the winter before are in place to speed the reaction. Investigators are blaming the rec...
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...ice as persistent, Tabazadeh's team speculates. "I think the study she's done is really good," says Drew T. Shindell of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Aircraft studies and ground-based measurements depict localized conditions, he says, "but things change from region to region, so it's nice to have these global data sets from satellites." "It's important to realize that the question is very closely connected to the bigger picture of carbon dioxide increases and [human-caused] climate change," adds Michael J. Newchurch of the University of Alabama at Huntsville. Earth's stratosphere cools as its surface warms. Still, Tabazadeh suspects that the Arctic will not continue its cooling trend or produce annual ozone holes rivaling Antarctica's. "I don't think it can keep cooling and cooling.... It should either slow down very much or even reverse."
In the essay, “Global Warming is Eroding Glacial Ice,” Andrew C. Revkin argues that global warming is the primary cause for many of the world’s natural disasters; including flash floods, climate change, and the melting of the polar ice caps. He includes multiple accounts of expert testimony as well as a multitude amount of facts and statistics to support his theory that global warming is a threat to the world. However, in the essay “Cold Comfort for ‘Global Warming’,” Phillip Stott makes the complete opposite argument. He argues that global warming is nothing to be worried about and the melting of the polar icecaps is caused by the interglacial period we are currently in. After reading both of these essays and doing extensive research on both viewpoints, I completely agree with Revkin that global warming is an enormous threat to our world today. My research not only helped me to take a stand but it also showed me the invalidity in Stott’s essay.
15.2) The accumulation of chlorofluorocarbons is responsible for depleting the atmospheric zone. The atmospheric zone has changed in concentration due to human activity. The CFCs release chlorine atoms which react with ozone reducing it to molecular O₂. Following chemical reactions release the chlorine which reacts with other ozone molecules in a catalytic chain reaction. The ozone layer is getting thinner and thinner as stable air at places such as Antarctica allows reaction to continue. The accumulation of CFCs has led to increased UV radiation in sunlight reaching the earth thereby decreasing ozone levels. The global temperature has increased.
The Arctic Tundra is the biome where the Polar bear, Ursus maritimus, or the sea bear live. The climate over there is in the Arctic and is Earth's coldest, where it is treeless and covered with piles of snow and ice for the whole year until summer when it brings wildflowers. On the top of the mountain it is colder, windy, and rainfall is scant.
Unfortunately, scientist are still searching for the missing puzzle pieces when it comes to solving the global warming hiatus. Here is what I did find in the article that seemed to be aligned with other articles;
As the twenty-first century progresses, it has become increasingly apparent just how many challenges the world faces. Prominent among these concerns are environmental issues, in particular, ozone depletion and climate change. While the international community has been exceptionally successful in its struggle to reduce the production and consumption of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the organic compounds that contribute to the ozone issue, its efforts to tackle climate change have yielded considerably fewer advancements. A number of factors that helped the proceedings of the ozone regime, or campaign, are not applicable to the climate change regime. The issue of limiting CFCs was much less politically and economically charged than that of reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs), which cause the greenhouse effect and the consequent warming of the planet. Climate change has been referred to as the ultimate “tragedy of the commons”, an important metaphor in economics that helps explain why this subject is still at the centre of much heated debate and has yet to be resolved in a manner similar to that of the ozone problem.
The Arctic Tundra The Tundra is located in the northern regions of North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. as well as a few regions of Antarctica. The Tundra is the second largest vegetation. zone in Canada. It can be divided into three different sections: the High Arctic Tundra, the Low Arctic Tundra and the Alpine Tundra.
To many outsiders the Arctic is pictured as a deserted, blank piece of land with no life. Little did they know that the Arctic Region is actually inhabited by many native Alaskan groups, and that still to this day continue practicing their subsistence lifestyle. Native Alaskan groups such as the Gwich'in Indians, Inupiat Eskimos, Yup'ik and Aleut still depend on the geographic features of the Arctic. For not only their subsistence lifestyle, but also the preservation of their culture.
Stratospheric ozone absorbs 97-99% of ultraviolet radiation. As this protective layer continues to dissentigrate, human health will suffer. One American dies every hour from skin cancer, a direct result of ozone depletion by anthropogenic chemicals, primarily CFCs, which damage the ozone layer. Alternate chemicals are now being used in the place of CFCs that will not damage statospheric ozone, and there is international recognition of the importance of developing these chemicals. The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty which limits the production of ozone depleting substances. Still, human health is at risk from the deletion of ozone, and the risk factor will continue to rise unless people and industries become more aware of the implications connected with everyday use of chemicals which destroy stratospheric ozone.
Biomes, there are six different types of biomes on Earth. The tundra biome is one of these six on Earth and it has district, different characteristics than the other. There are two tundras so I picked the arctic tundra. The topics I will talk about in this essay are the characteristics, location,climate,some species and plants,and what I have learned.Have fun reading!
The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest ice mass on Earth and is about one-tenth the volume of the Antarctic ice sheet. It is the only significant ice mass in the Arctic today. [ See Antarctica and Climate Change ; and Ice Sheets .] It is an ice-age relict that overlies a bowl-shaped continent almost completely fringed by coastal mountains.
Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica show that our climate does respond to changes in greenhouse gas levels. It also shows that changes happen quickly (years).
“Climate change: How do we know?” NASA. NASA n. d. n. pag. Web. 28 November
Climate change is evidenced through shifts in the weather patterns such as winds, humidity and temperatures over certain durations. Natural climate changes occur less frequently and they are triggered by factors related to geographical aspects as well as solar radiation. The earth’s movement on the orbit triggers changes in climate, causing some areas to have higher temperatures than usual, while others are significantly cold depending on the position of the earth on the orbit. The heat from the sun causes changes in the stratospheric ozone and it increases the amount of greenhouse gases. Heat from the oceanic crust also contributes to warming as a result of episodic hydrothermal venting (Liao & Sandeberg, 2012).