Week 4 – Protecting the Ozone Layer

Today we learnt about some of the advantages and disadvantages of using the term ozone screen as opposed to the term ozone layer to describe ozone in the stratosphere. The term ozone screen will give the misconception that it reflects the UV rays instead of absorbing it. It also gives people an impression that we are totally being screened from the UV rays which is not true.

We also learnt about some of the reasons that the solutions to ozone depletion proposed in the Sydney Harris cartoon will not work. This is because ozone is destroyed and produced at apporoximately the same rate, hence it is difficult to replenish the ozone layer as the rate of it being destroyed will increase.