Environmental Issues

Over the years, the world has been able to solve many problems that have threatened the existence of man. These include issues related to security and peace. Man has always gone out of his way to try to find solutions to catastrophes that continue to embattle him and so far he has been successful. However, one problem that has proved difficult to solve relates to environment. The drastic environmental changes that the world has recently experienced worsen mans predicaments. The floods, persistent earthquakes experienced in some areas and famine continue to haunt man and all these can be attributed to only one thing ozone layer depletion. This refers to decrease in the amount of gases found in the atmosphere. The region where the ozone has been depleted is what is referred to as the ozone hole (World Encyclopedia, par.1). It is believed that this region is found above the Antarctica.
Are there attempts to dispute myths on ozone layer

Human beings have come up with various myths explaining this phenomenon and studies have been done to prove them wrong. One of the myths says that, the hole has always existed, it is nothing knew but this has been disputed by experts who say that, it actually came into existence in the year 1976.Another widely believed myth is that, ozone hole occurs in winter which is not the case because there is less destruction of ozone layer at that time but after sunlight returns, that is during spring, the ozone hole occurs (Norton, par 2)

What are the causes
A group of gases which have been widely blamed on the creation of the hole are called the CFCs, Chloro-Fluorine- Carbons. These have been used in some spray cans, refrigerators, fire extinguishers, air conditioning systems and some propellants  found  in aerosol cans, though air conditioning  units found in vehicles remain to be the biggest contributors of CFCs. When these are released into the air, they react with ultra violet light to form compounds which deplete the ozone layer creating the hole (Dallman, par 2).

Effects of ozone hole
Man has been on the receiving end when it comes to the negative effects of ozone depletion. The ozone layer functions as a sunscreen and thus the moment it thins out, it means the ultra violet rays will reach the earth causing sun burns which lead to skin cancer meaning, more deaths. These rays are also not good for the eyes and thus exposure to them may lead to increase in the number of blind people (Atmosphere, Climate  Environment, par.10-12).

The UV rays also threaten the lives of plants and animals especially the ones that exist in water. The rays pass through the water killing planktons, which are fishes main food. The same rays destroy green plants generally and this means that if the ozone hole will continue widening, a time will come when the earth will have very few plants existing hence less food for both man and animals (Atmosphere, Climate  Environment, par. 13-14).

Lastly, global warming (rising of temperatures in the atmosphere) can also be attributed to the effects of UV rays. No one has been able to prove that there is global warming or not but the world is said to have warmed up a bit, approximately 1 degree and the rising of the sea level has also been noted. This has led to adverse climatic changes making predictions of weather difficult (Dallman and Fernau, par.1).

In conclusion, if one is asked what could be done to reduce the size of the however  that the closure of the hole would pose a  major problem to the southern hemisphere prompting  reverse  in climatic change direction which is the same thing the world is trying to fight against (Melville, par 4).So whats the way forward Researchers have proposed that more studies should be done to understand the impacts of ozone hole closure in the efforts of solving environmental issues (Melville, par 5).