International Environmental Law: Ozone Layer Depletion ENV/320July 21, 2014Catrina FreyInternational Environmental Law: Ozone Layer DepletionIn 1839 Christian Schonbein, was the first to identify the ozone layer. He named it ozone because of the strong odor that it produced. However, according to the EPA (n.d.), “French scientists Charles Farby and Henri Buisson are credited with actual discovery of the Ozone Layer in 1913.” Although the first measurement of the ozone layer was done in Europe in the 1920s by GMB Dobson. Dobson researched the ozone for the next 40 years and created his own equipment to measure the ozone layer. It was not until the 1970s that scientist realized the protection that the ozone offered and that humans had been unknowingly damaging the ozone layer. This was when they discovered that manmade chemicals known as Ozone Depleting Substances or ODS were damaging the ozone layer and it could not be repaired.
For more than 40 years the ozone has been being monitored by scientist because the size of the ozone layers have been changing over time. The most watched is the depletion of the ozone layer. The ozone is a natural gas composed of three atoms of oxygen. (Rowland, Parson, &Green, 1995) The ozone has a strong odor and is blue in color. Although the ozone is made up of oxygen it is quite different than the oxygen that we breathe. The oxygen that we breathe is colorless and odorless and has only two atoms.
There are 2 types of ozone’s good and bad. Good ozone, also called Stratospheric Ozone, occurs naturally in the upper Stratosphere. Good ozone has a vital role because it protects humans, animals, and life on earth from the sun’s harmful UV rays. Bad Ozone is also known as Tropospheric Ozone, or ground level ozone. This gas is found in the troposphere and is not naturally occurring in the atmosphere. According to Beckrich (2013), “Human actions cause chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic...