From: murfeypj@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.EDU
Newsgroups: alt.save.the.earth
Subject: Re: Ozone depletion is a hoax
Date: 16 Apr 92 17:38:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Apr16.173824.22346
Reply-To: murfeypj@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.EDU
Organization: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Craig Smith writes:

>If chlorine gas depletes ozone, we should have seen all ozone disappear
>years ago due to the constant, everyday, injection of chlorine gas into
>the stratosphere from volcanos.

I don't remember the mechanism, but chlorine gas (Cl2) cannot make it
into the ionosphere (where the useful ozone is) by itself, it needs a
"ride."

>If CFC's break down into chlorine, which depletes the ozone, we should 
>have no ozone in city air polution, since most of the CFC's are in the
>cities.

CFC's only break down under the high energy conditions found in the 
ionosphere and above (intense UV light). In the lower layers of the 
atmosphere, CFC's are quite inert (as you pointed out). Even if CFC's 
were to break down in the lower atmosphere, they wouldn't do much to
reduce the already very low ozone concentrations. The chlorine would
more likely run into something else first and react with it, ending
the chain reaction.

>How can an extremely inert gas (that is one of the reasons CFC's are used
>is their chemical inertness) which weights much more than the surround
>air (another reason for using CFC's), how do they get to the stratosphere
>and how do they break down into something extremely chemically active,
>namely chlorine gas?

CFC's take a long time (~50 years) to get from the surface to the 
ionosphere. Turbulance is a stronger force than bouyancy, but it is
mostly random in direction. This is why it takes CFC's so long to get
to the ionosphere. Unfortunately, since they are inert everywhere but
the ionosphere, the CFC's will get there eventually. Because of this
even if CFC production were halted today, ozone conditions would 
continue to worsen (at a decreasing rate) for the next ~50 years.

When a CFC molecule gets into the ionosphere, it is bombarded with
very intense UV rays. Under these high energy conditions, the CFC
molecule gives up a chlorine atom. This chlorine atom (Cl not Cl2)
is _very_ active, and catalyzes the breakdown of ozone (O3) into 
oxygen (O2). A single Cl atom destroys ~1000 ozone molecules before
it runs into another Cl atom and becomes Cl2, which is harmless (I
believe). 

>Someone explain this madness to me.

I hope this sheds a little light for you. I am glad you took the time
to try to find out about what is really going on up there, but it 
upsets me that you would call an event a hoax simply because you 
didn't understand it. This is the kind of reasoning politicians in
Washington use.

It is because of the erronious blanket assumption "If it is inert
under one set of conditions (i.e. the lab), then it is inert under
all conditions" that both you and the developing chemists made that
got us where we are today. If some one had thought to check what
would happen to CFC's when they got into the upper atmosphere, the
planet would not be in the dire straits it is (assuming, of course, 
that the information was not buried by the industry, which it may
have been). 

	    Pete Murfey		MurfeyPJ@rosevc.Rose-Hulman.edu

              //=\\    	       
             //   \\           	Don't ask what you can do for your country,
                   \/          	ask what you can do for your planet.
           /\            	
          // RECYCLE \\         Please God, save us from ourselves.
          \\===  <===//