What is causing ozone depletion?
Man made chemicals such as those found in common air conditioners (called chlorofluorocarbons) are believed to be altering this precise balance though a multi-stage fairly complex chemical reaction. The temperature of the earths upper atmosphere is critical to regulating the speed of this continuous and fragile chemical reaction. During the attack due to chlorofluorocarbons, the ozone layer thins significantly, letting many more UV-B photons through than we should normally see. The southern hemisphere is slightly colder than the northern hemisphere (because the Antarctic continent reflects amore solar radiation back to space), ozone depletion problem tends to be more acute “down under.” Our understanding of this reaction was considered so crucial that the three scientists who are generally attributed to discovering the model to describe it won the Nobel prize in chemistry for their work!
