Nitrous Oxide Fingered as Monster Ozone Slayer

I am very interested in environmental pollution and I found a recent study that was interesting but I think obvious. Climate and environmental pollution have been a problem for quite some time now. Air pollution has been one of the main concerns in the fight to improve the well being of the planet. Recent studies done by scientists from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration have discovered that N₂O, known to most people as laughing gas, is now the leading threat to Earth’s ozone layers. The ozone layers protect the Earth from ultraviolet rays. Right now, Freon and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are the leading source of ozone destruction but N₂O is predicted to become the biggest threat to the ozone in the near future. Scientists predict this occurring because N₂O has a survival rate of a hundred years and huge quantities continue to be released every year. Once these quantities are released, they can remain in the upper atmosphere for decades. It is not the N₂O that is harmful, but it forms NO in the atmosphere which causes the damage. N₂O levels are increasing due to the rising amount of fossil fuel emission, combustion emission, and the nitrogen fertilization of agricultural soils. The best way to control this growing problem before it gets out of hand is to make some kind of world policy. I think this is a huge problem and I think everyone has known about this for a while. However, I doubt that a policy will be made anytime soon unless the scientists can really scare the world.

This article can be found here.

Posted by Michelle Clark