the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

BEWARE SOLUTIONS THAT CREATE NEW PROBLEMS 33
light there splinters it and frees a chlorine atom into the fragile bubble of
ozone that surrounds the planet.
Let’s take a breath here because, let’s face it, chemistry can be boring
as hell. But there is something vital you should know about that layer
of ozone above us. That ozone filters out the sun’s dangerous radioactivity
and makes Earth habitable. Without it, a lot of unpleasant things would
happen. The sea’s plankton would die, a consequence that would echo all
the way up the food chain. Skin cancer rates would soar. Worst-case scenario,
humans would begin to die off either from the effects of the unfi ltered
rays or from the snowballing damage to the ecosystem. Without the
ozone layer, this planet would be toast.
In science, questions don’t always lead to “Eureka!” answers.
Sometimes they lead to more questions, and that was the situation Rowland
and Molina faced once they had documented the behavior of CFCs in
the upper atmosphere. So they began to wonder: What happens to all that
chlorine once it’s released up there in our delicate, life-preserving ozone
layer? The scientists began to calculate based on what they already knew
about chlorine and ozone. And as they calculated, they began to get very,
very nervous. Chlorine and ozone are a bad combination. Each freed chlorine
atom theoretically would set up a chain reaction that could destroy as
many as one hundred thousand molecules of ozone, a horrifi c multiplying
effect. CFCs “weren’t just bullets cutting holes in the ozone,” wrote Pulitzer
Prize–winning journalist Edward Humes. “They were shrapnel
from a chemical grenade, shredding whole swaths of the vital layer high
above us.”
As the two scientists checked and rechecked their calculations and
tested their theory for loopholes, the magnitude of their discovery began
to sink in. They already knew that four de cades’ worth of CFCs from all
that Right Guard and Aquanet was drifting slowly upward. If they were
correct, CFCs released during World War II were just arriving to do their
dirty work. The world was only just beginning to see the results of the
folly that Midgley had unwittingly unleashed that day in 1930, and it