Many crises have challenged the innovation and cooperation of humanity in recent centuries. Depletion of the ozone layer, however, has proven to be one of the most heavily regarded issues. Increased solar radiation was predicted to cause higher rates of certain cancers in many species, to be detrimental to the development of certain bacteria (some vital to agriculture), and to cause cortical cataracts. 1 The world united and responded with an advanced magnitude of international cooperation that has significantly slowed the formation of depressions in the ozone layer. Ozone depletion has its roots in human chemical experiments funded through the politics of business. A new innovative company called Guardian Refrigerator Company began manufacturing refrigerators in 1916. However, the company was not destined for instant success, and it began to fail. General Motors, seeing a profitable opportunity, bought the young upstart refrigerator manufacturer and Guardian Refrigerator Company became Frigidaire. The original self-contained refrigerators used sulfur dioxide as a coolant. Sulfur dioxide, being highly toxic, resulted in the occasional death due to refrigerator malfunction. Subsequently, the search for a cheap and non-toxic replacement began. General Motors sought out Thomas Midgley Jr., a world-renowned chemist at the time, and requested that he pursue research into possible alternative coolants. Midgley’s research led him to consider carbon tetrafluoride and dichlorodifluoromethane.2 Both possessed stability, a non-reactive nature, and fire extinguishing characteristics, but dichlorodifluoromethane was nominated as the preferable option because its boiling point was better suited to the mechanics of refrigerators. This new co... ... middle of paper ... ... to Susan Strahan of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, “the hole should vanish entirely by 2070 and should start to recover in the next decade.”10 Legislature’s biggest opponents are still industries with deep pockets that are heavily invested in their respective substances of interest. Thankfully, the extreme potency of the Montreal Protocol also makes a similar debacle highly unlikely since any new material that poses a threat to the ozone layer would be swiftly annexed to the protocol. Joint action of individuals, parties, and nations resulted in an ingenious, flexible protocol that has allowed humanity to rescind one of its largest mistakes to date. The events that have transpired since the first synthesis of dichlorodifluoromethane have inspired a sense of environmental awareness that has shaped international politics and the natural mechanics of the globe.
"Refrigerators." Canada Science and Technology Museum. Canada Science and Technology Museum, 2014. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. .
Such agreement provides both a theoretical and policy framework that promotes international environmental law. I believe that there were more pragmatic approaches to solve this problem from a culture and legal perspective. However, the establishment of an international environmental dispute tribunal created a new norm to legally resolve transboundary environmental problems. For example, Hess writes “In 1935, the countries signed and ratified a convention that referred the Trail Smelter dispute to an arbitral tribunal.9 in its interim decision in 1938, the tribunal concluded that the emissions from the Trail Smelter had harmed crops and trees in Washington and awarded the United States US$78,000 in compensation. In its final decision in 1941, the tribunal held that the Trail Smelter should avoid air emissions that harm Washington, that a detailed pollution control regime should be implemented at the smelter, and that Canada would be responsible for paying damages for harm in the United States from future smelter emissions”(Hess, 2005). It is important to note that international environmental law plays a leading role in environmental management worldwide, thus instituting and executing proper
One of the greatest accomplishments and innovations of human history thus far is the invention of the electric refrigerator. Such a simple concept has literally changed how the entire world stores food and has saved millions of lives in the process. Refrigeration as we know it has only been around since the 1930’s, and in less then a hundred years has been greatly taken for granted. Since the influence of electrical engineering in the modern refrigerator, refrigeration has gone from storing food in an ice cellar to being able to have two dedicating refrigeration units with controllable temperatures and even an ice machine attached. Without electricity modern refrigeration would be drastically different, using instead previous refrigeration
Stratospheric ozone absorbs 97-99% of ultraviolet radiation. As this protective layer continues to dissentigrate, human health will suffer. One American dies every hour from skin cancer, a direct result of ozone depletion by anthropogenic chemicals, primarily CFCs, which damage the ozone layer. Alternate chemicals are now being used in the place of CFCs that will not damage statospheric ozone, and there is international recognition of the importance of developing these chemicals. The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty which limits the production of ozone depleting substances. Still, human health is at risk from the deletion of ozone, and the risk factor will continue to rise unless people and industries become more aware of the implications connected with everyday use of chemicals which destroy stratospheric ozone.
Mankind’s industrialization of the world has caused a drastic increase in temperature. This rise in temperature is caused by solar radiation remaining in our atmosphere because of gases produced by humans through the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities. These gases block the radiation from escaping into space therefore warming our planet. The result is raising of ocean levels, extinction of species and threatening of children’s health because of disease and less freshwater to drink. While many view climate change to be a more natural occurrence than others do, scientists have proven the average temperature rise of the Earth between 0.4 and 0.8 °C over the last 100 years.
Oxygen is the most abundant element on the earth. It makes up 23 percent of air,
The factors for exponential growth for air-conditioning are the HVAC Market, energy, environment, communication, societal, political, preparing for the future, looking ahead, and the conclusion. Buildings of the U.S. use approximately 35% of the nation’s precise total of energy consumption. The worth of shipments by U.S. HVAC manufacturers was over $28 billion of 1996. Since there are 52,000 CHC chillers needed to be replaced among the U.S., there’s a large opportunity for new chillers, new technology for the HVAC industry. The ozone depletion is an international issue in which is currently being resolved. The 3rd world countries are still allowed to manufacture CFC’s. Illegal imports of CFC’S to the U.S. is a consistent concern. Many illegal imports are virgin CFC’s. Those whom have a political overtones are specifically the ones whom create a protectionism of local commerce, having a negative impact on those inside and out of the country.
Air pollution is caused by many things such as car fumes, burning of fossil fuels,
In 1970, Crutzen first showed that nitrogen oxides produced by decaying nitrous oxide from soil-borne microbes react catalytically with ozone hastening its depletion. His findings started research on "global biogeochemical cycles" as well as the effects of supersonic transport aircraft that release nitrogen oxide into the stratosphere.2 In 1974, Molina and Rowland found that human-made chlorofluorocarbons used for making foam, cleaning fluids, refrigerants, and repellents transform into ozone-depleting agents.3 Chlorofluorocarbons stay in the atmosphere for several decades due to their long tropospheric lifetimes. These compounds are carried into the stratosphere where they undergo hundreds of catalytic cycles with ozone.4 They are broken down into chlorine atoms by ultraviolet radiation.5 Chlorine acts as the catalyst for breaking down atomic oxygen and molecular ozone into two molecules of molecular oxygen.
In The Development of Environmental Regimes: Chemicals, Wastes, and Climate Change, the authors provide a simple framework to analyze the development of global environmental regimes (GER) which ultimately addresses why states sometimes agree to cooperate on global environmental issues despite divergent interests. The chapter is divided into five subsections but begins with an introduction to explain the five processes involved in the development of GERs. The authors address questions such as who forms GERs and how are they formulated. Next, they apply the processes involved in the development of GERs to four case studies that are linked to global environmental issues: ozone depletion, hazardous waste, toxic chemicals, and climate change, respectively. The authors conclude that states and non-state actors can come together to address global environmental issues but not without obstacles.
The compressors used in refrigerators use titanium turbines. Using titanium needs high level of energy, which make the cost higher. One of the future techs that will help saving energy and reducing the cost is the refrigerant known as “R-718” or “Water Vapor”. R718 can be more efficient than our current refrigerants.
...rk together. Efforts such as the Montreal Protocol were largely successful in reducing the use of ozone-destroying chemicals, but many countries chose to not even participate in the Kyoto Protocol or other efforts. It appears that corporations do control many governments today.
The protection of the environment however has just recently become the major issue that it is in today’s society. People worldwide have slowly begun to realize and become aware of the blatant destruction and deterioration of the environment and ozone. As well as the consequences and side affects, that we, as a society have created. The majority of people are just becoming aware of the frightening reality of the situation. As society becomes more informed on the issue of the environment, they too become more impatient, and feel that in the snap of fingers, the damage can be reversed and future damage can be stopped instantaneously.
Nowadays, we can see a lot of campaigns to reduce this humans’ contribution of greenhouse gases to atmosphere. These campaign’s missions are usually about reducing the energy that we use, convincing us to use recyclable energy, stopping the deforestation... These missions are all about mitigating to climate change. Climate change mitigation is the actions to limit the significant rate of long term climate change. In other words, climate change mitigation is all of the actions about lowering the humans’ greenhouse gas contribution to atmosphere. It is now too late for humans’ to prevent the effects of climate change, but these effects can be reduced in the future with mitigation. The most popular treaty, disenchant of humanity, is Kyoto Protocol. The main goal of Kyoto Protocol is reducing the human emitted greenhouse gases, in other word, mitigation. Also in ways that underlying national differences in GHG emissions, wealth, and capacity to make th...
For the previous 200 years, the industrial revolution’s discovery of fossil fuels reigned supreme. (Benefits of Recycling, History of Alternative Energy) Newly developed factories continued their steady streams of production and our society started becoming larger consumers. To meet the increasing demand, more product had to be made, and this resulted in more waste being emitted into the atmosphere. These gases built up until they caused the ozone layer to thicken to the point where it started trapping the h...