Md. Asadullah Khan
Experts now know that the danger is shining through the sky. The evidence is now overwhelming : the earth's stratospheric ozone layer located between 10-50 km above the ground -- our shield against the sun's hazardous ultraviolet (UV) rays -- is being eaten away by man-made chemicals far faster than any scientist had predicted. No longer is the threat just to our future, the threat is here and now.
This unprecedented assault on the planet's life-support system could have horrendous long term effects on human health, animal life, the plants that support the food chain -- every strand that makes up the delicate web of nature. Any effort to prevent the damage may prove to be futile but the best the world can hope for is to stabilize the ozone loss.
Soon after the ozone hole over Antarctica was confirmed in 1985, many of the world's governments reached a rapid consensus that action had to be taken. In 1987 they crafted the landmark Montreal Protocol, which called for a 50 percent reduction in CFC production by 1999. Three years later as signs of ozone loss mounted, international delegates met again and called for a total phase out of CFCs by the year 2000. But the schedule was not adhered to by the affluent industrial nations and now the grim news spurred new public warnings and call for faster action.
The vital gas ozone being destroyed is a form of oxygen in which the molecules have three atoms instead of the normal two. That simple structure enables ozone to absorb UV radiation -- a process that is crucial to human health. UV rays can make the lens of the eye cloud up with cataracts, which bring on blindness if untreated. The radiations can cause mutations in DNA, leading to skin cancers. Excess UV radiation may also affect the body's general ability to fight off disease. [Read More in The Daily Star]
Source: The Daily Star
No comments:
Post a Comment