Introduction
There is a depletion of ozone’s in the ozone layer over Antarctica called the ozone “hole”. The ozone layer is made up of three oxygen atoms. The energy of the ultraviolet light turns atmospheric oxygen into ozone. It’s about 15 miles (24 km) up. The ozone layer protects us from the UV rays, which causes the incidence of cancer, certain eye diseases, and other sicknesses that comes from the sun.
Recently, however, because of certain emissions of Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) from factories on Earth and other sources, the ozone layer over parts of the Earth has been rapidly thinning or completely disappearing. In Antarctica there is already a big ozone hole. If there was no ozone layer, we will all be dead.
Chlorofluorocarbon is a chemical compound consisting only of the two elements, fluorine and carbon. In ordinary usage, however, the term includes many other compounds that contain various other elements as well, most commonly hydrogen and chlorine. They have almost no odor, they are not poisonous, they do not burn, and they do not harm other materials. Some people said that Chlorofluorocarbon are making the ozone hole bigger! So, the world banned Chlorofluorocarbon in the Montreal Protocol treaty, but until now nothing has changed in the hole. I am now reading a book called Exploring Creation with Physical Science by Wile, and it says that the ozone hole is not caused by Chlorofluorocarbon. It says that how can there be Chlorofluorocarbon in Antarctica if there are no people there using Chlorofluorocarbon! So, I am going to tell you the costs and benefits of Chlorofluorocarbon.
Benefits: Chlorofluorocarbon are the most efficient refrigerants, surgical sterilizers, and firefighting agents (help put out the fire) in the world.
Costs: Because of the CFC ban, it caused these processes to be less efficient. Fires will most likely last longer before they are put out, resulting in loss of property and death. Surgical procedures will be less sterile, probably causing infection, which will lead to sickness and death. Finally, refrigerators will be less efficient, resulting in food poisoning and perhaps even food starvation. The result? More people are going to die than not banning Chlorofluorocarbon. So, it’s not clear that the ban won’t save any lives!
If you do the cost/benefit analysis on the elimination of the CFC, we can now see that the costs far outweigh the benefits! Thanks for joining us! Stay tuned for the next post!
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