New Zealand : Hole In The Ozone Layer

The greenhouse effect isn't bad at all. As you said, it's what keeps us warm and allows us to survive. Without the greenhouse effect it would be impossible for most of the life on this planet (including us) to survive.

What is bad though, is a drastic change in the greenhouse effect. If the earth suddenly warms above today's levels, the the following events could occur:

- Heating of the earth causes water to expand, thus causing sea levels to rise
- Cities in coastal regions (a good example is Vienna) could flood
- Areas usually subject to regular rainfall/snow could become dry and desolate
- Lakes and rivers could be significantly reduced in size or even dry up
- More droughts will occur
- Less water will be available for drinking and irrigation
- Hurricanes and tornadoes, whose occurence is determined by temperature changes, could become more sporatic, unpredictable, and frequent

The greenhouse effect is basically this: Light comes from the sun, and collides with the earth. Normally, the earth would just absorb a little, and the rest would bounce into space. If that would happen, the earth would be extremely cold - like the moon at night.

Anyway, instead what happens is that the light entering the earth, and, before it can bounce out to space, gets trapped in the atmosphere by what we call greenhouse gases. The most common-place greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are Carbon Dioxide (CO2 - the one that is mainly responsible for global warming), Methan (CH4), and Water Vapor.

Actually I just proofread an interesting paper from my university, discussing future tree growth patterns and interactions. A big concern with increase usage of fossil fuels is actually an increase in O3 (ozone) concentrations. I can't really cite the paper because it hasn't been published yet (and to be honest I don't know a lot about this topic) but according to them it was a growing concern, although they discovered that it was relatively unlikely that trees would be seriously affected by growing Ozone concentrations. In any case I don't think the "hole in the ozone layer" is such a big concern anymore.

What is a big concern - without getting into an argument over whether it's valid - is the greenhouse effect, which, based on the education curriculum in yours and most other countries, is cause by the emission of CO2 (carbon dioxide). CO2 is the byproduct of any motorized vehicle, with very few and minor exceptions.

Welcome to the forum :)

The phrase ozone "hole" is a media invention to scare people.

It is really a thinning of the 03 concentration of a particular region of the planet.The South Polar region is cold enough to make it possible for a pronounced REGIONAL and temporary thinning of the 03 concentration.It is NORMAL!

The rest of the world 03 concentration is unaffected.

CO2 does not destroy any of the ozone "layer".It is CHLORINE that does it and it is NORMAL!

This has been known since the 1950's,that every year in late southern hemisphere,there is a thinning of the ozone concentration.It is NORMAL!

You teacher is giving you misleading stuff because the phenomenon is NORMAL!

Solar radiation striking the atmosphere creates ozone all the time.Thus the seasonal thinning is temporary caused by a rare meteorological event,that happens every late winter/early spring time in the South Polar regions.It is NORMAL!

It has nothing to do with global warming.

It is a natural phenomenon that occurs each year.

The teacher Bridgette is a science teacher?