The chemical society and its discontents: Ozone layer edition
The chemical society and its discontents: Ozone layer edition
The accidental #climate #scientist who uncovered an unexpected force of #globalwarming in the 1970s
"The young scientist had discovered that #chlorofluorocarbons - #CFCs - then widely used in the manufacture of refrigerators, air-conditioning units and spray cans, had a significant greenhouse effect."
“I was just a postdoc immigrant from India. I didn’t know if I should tell #NASA about this or not. I just sent the paper off,” Ramanathan recalled."
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/29/science/climate-crisis-crafoord-prize-veerabhadran-ramanathan
Think CFCs were bad? Meet BFCs! But in the hands of my timeline, it makes for something more optimistic...and exotic.
Read more at my #blog: https://www.adamasnemesis.com/2025/10/24/beautiful-and-terrible-as-the-dawn/
This post's featured image is John Martin's "The Great Day of His Wrath".
#worldbuilding #scifi #sciencefiction #environment #ozone #ozonedepletion #ozonelayer #CFCs #BFCs #alternatehistory
Ozone recovery could trigger 40% more global warming than predicted | ScienceDaily…
As the #ozonelayer recovers, it’s also intensifying #globalwarming . Researchers predict that by 2050, ozone will rank just behind #carbondioxide as a driver of heating, offsetting many of the benefits from banning #CFCs [...] Source: Ozone recovery could trigger 40% more global warming than predicted | ScienceDaily
As the #ozonelayer recovers, it’s also intensifying #globalwarming . Researchers predict that by 2050, ozone will rank just behind #carbondioxide as a driver of heating, offsetting many of the bene…
er #CFCS flyttet væk fra forsvarsministeriet og #FE?
https://www.cfcs.dk/da/nyheder/2025/cfcs-er-en-del-af-samsik/
There's a natural variation in ozone in the atmosphere, but CFCs and other substances were reducing ozone levels and expanding the seasonal ozone holes over the poles. The problem was real and it was getting worse, because CFCs were produced for a reason: It was really useful and cost-effective stuff.
Banning ozone-depleting substances for use as coolants, fire supressants, aerosol propellants and other applications was very successful, and after four decades we are now more than halfway to recovering to natural ozone levels.
A few years ago there was briefly some illegal production of CFCs, which halted the recovery, but it was tracked down and halted, and we are back on track.
nasa.gov/missions/aura/nasa-st…
bbc.com/news/science-environme…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_de…
#OzoneLayer #OzoneDepletion
#OzoneDepletingSubstances #ODSes
#chlorofluorocarbons #CFCs
When old satellites fall into Earth's atmosphere and burn up, they leave behind tiny particles of aluminum oxide,
🔸which eat away at Earth's protective ozone layer. 🔸
A new study finds that these oxides have 💥increased 8-fold between 2016 and 2022 💥
and will continue to accumulate as the number of low-Earth-orbit satellites skyrockets.
The 1987 Montreal Protocol successfully regulated ozone-damaging #CFCs to protect the #ozone layer,
shrinking the ozone #hole over Antarctica with recovery expected within fifty years.
But the unanticipated growth of #aluminumoxides may push pause on the ozone success story in decades to come.
Of the 8,100 objects in low Earth orbit, 6,000 are #Starlink satellites launched in the last few years.
Demand for global internet coverage is driving a rapid ramp up of launches of small communication satellite swarms.
#SpaceX is the frontrunner in this enterprise, with permission to launch another ⭐️ 12,000 Starlink satellites and as many as ⭐️42,000 planned.
#Amazon and other companies around the globe are also planning constellations ranging from 3,000 to 13,000 satellites, the authors of the study said.
Internet satellites in low Earth orbit are short-lived, at about five years.
Companies must then launch replacement satellites to maintain internet service, continuing a cycle of planned obsolescence and unplanned pollution.
Aluminum oxides spark chemical reactions that destroy stratospheric ozone, which protects Earth from harmful #UV radiation.
The oxides don't react chemically with ozone molecules, instead triggering destructive reactions between ozone and chlorine that deplete the ozone layer.
Because aluminum oxides are not consumed by these chemical reactions, they can continue to destroy molecule after molecule of ozone for decades as they drift down through the stratosphere.
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-satellite-megaconstellations-jeopardize-recovery-ozone.html
When old satellites fall into Earth's atmosphere and burn up, they leave behind tiny particles of aluminum oxide, which eat away at Earth's protective ozone layer. A new study finds that these oxides have increased 8-fold between 2016 and 2022 and will continue to accumulate as the number of low-Earth-orbit satellites skyrockets.