Saturday, August 16, 2014

Record Radiation in South America

Astrobiologists have been working for the last ten years to come up with an extensive report on UV radiation. They have found that even ten years ago the UV index could reach 43.3 certain places in the world. This is more than four times higher than what you would experience on a normal day at a United States beach. This is a huge problem because of the negative impact UV radiation can have on human skin. I love the comparison made in the article comparing the ozone to sunscreen. Solutions to slow the decay of the ozone include emitting less greenhouse gasses. This can be done by using public transit, carpooling, or even riding a bike instead of driving a car. Barriers to this solution include human laziness and convince for humans. I believe humans need to put forth a better effort to decrease greenhouse emissions. Once the ozone is gone it can’t reform and skin cancer rates will be astronomically large. 

2 comments:

  1. I posted a similar article earlier this summer and it was probably the most interesting case I had researched. I found it extremely alarming, as you pointed out, the comparison to the UV level sunscreen would call for, to that of the depleted ozone layer. I feel as if more intensive research should be done on this occurrence seeing as that not only would skin cancer rates rise, but life of any sort would be heavily taxed, if not possible at all.

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  2. I believe that eventually there can and will be a solution to ozone depletion. I think that scientists will one day be able to reform ozone. I think this possible because its just a gas so someday I believe will be able to do it.

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