Uniquely mild weather, which we experience, is primarily due to earth’s thin layer of ozone, which protects us from the potentially lethal ultraviolet rays of the sun. The ozone layer means ‘life on earth’ and is super oxygen, which contains three parts oxygen, rather than the normal two. Compared to the 4,000-mile radius of the earth, the thirteen-mile thickness of the ozone layer could be described as fingernail thin. Twenty years ago a hole approximately the size of the U.S. was discovered in the ozone over the South Pole. Later, a hole was also discovered over the North Pole. Both holes are growing wider and longer at a rapid pace.

We are already feeling the effects of the loss of this protective cover. The number of cases of a deadly form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma, has increased dramatically.

The cause of ozone depletion is primarily due to chlorofluorocarbons. They are found principally in air coolants, commercial spray propellants, and even the manufacture of the popular Styrofoam cup. When released into the atmosphere, chlorofluorocarbons rise. The chemical bond is fragmented by ultraviolet radiation. One of its components, chlorine, strips away one of the oxygen atoms and the other two remain as oxygen. As chlorofluorocarbons rise very slowly, we have not even experienced the potential losses that will occur once these reach the ozone layer. Added to this are the thousands of refrigerator compressors and car air conditioners still in use or lying in scrap heaps, yet to release their contaminants. It is amazing given this information for so long a timetime;; we are still manufacturing and using chlorofluorocarbons.