Degradation of the ozone layer

Production of CFCs is being phased out because they damage the earth’s stratospheric ozone layer, which prevents much of the sun’s ultraviolet light from reaching the earth. Degradation of this layer can cause an increase in skin cancer and a reduction of crop yields. As CFCs escape from junked or faulty compressors and hoses, or when used as solvents, they rise to the stratosphere. There they are transformed by ultraviolet radiation into chlorine atoms, which play a role in catalytic ozone depletion.

Scientists estimate that since the late 1950s, the ozone layer over Europe and North America has decreased by 10%. And the United Nations World Meteorological Organization announced that the largest hole ever measured in the earth’s ozone layer – a 3.86 million square mile gap – existed over Antarctica. As negative ozone figures kept coming in, developed countries agreed to eliminate the production of CFCs, except for a few essential uses. The “essential” exceptions allow for the production of CFCs for use as propellants in aerosol sprays for use by asthmatics, and for the use of small quantities in laboratories.

To accelerate tje switch to new equipment that can use alternative refrigerants, the United States levied a hefty, annually graduated excise tax on all new and imported CFCs, beginning in 1990.

CFCs are mélange of chemicals compounds. Their designations were developed by DuPont in the 1930s as an esoteric code intended to keep competitors from knowing the product’s chemical makeup. That code has long since been revealed and is used by the entire industry. The most widely used compound is CFCs-12, also known as R-12, which carries the DuPont trade name Freon. Its primary use is a refrigerant in residential refrigerators and mobile air conditioners. The automotive industry used about half the worldwide production of CFCs-12, or some 125 million pounds per year. Other CFCs, such as 12,113, 114 and 115, are used in the production of foam rubber and rigid insulating foam for appliances and construction, and as solvents, especially in the electronics industry. All of these CFCs are being replaced with an equally number of hydrofluorocarbons or hydrochlorofluorocarbons, known as HFCs and HCFCs, respectively.

Yet these replacements for CFCs are no panacea. It is known, for example, that HCFCs can also deplete the earth’s ozone layer at a considerably slower rate than do CFCs. To address this problem, the 1992 meeting in Copenhagen also adopted a complex phaseout schedule for HCFCs. The agreement calls for the reduction of HCFCs in five stages beginning in 2004, with a total phaseout by 2030. And, although HCFCs have not been associated with ozone depletion, both they and HCFCs have recently been cited as possible acid rain culprits.

2.Oil and Fish(1)

The Far Eastern and North Pacific shelves, with their severe climatic conditions present the great risk of contingencies with the worst of imaginable consequences. We should pay our attention to the latent anomalies existing in the region. For instance, in the locations of prospecting drills, changes in the marine ecosystem were observed resulting from mineral mixture released in the sea water. Another group of adverse factors: alienation of fishing areas, laying of pipelines without flushing with the sea bottom, covering of the sealed wells openings with special armature (4.5 m high, 3-4 sq. m), dumping of drilling platform debris, anchors, wires, tractors, etc. on sea bottom.

This given concept considers allocation of protected zones where oil prospecting and drilling will be prohibited under all conditions, as well as zones requiring additional environmental studies and limitations to avoid negative consequences. For the purposes of legal support, it will be necessary to alter the existing decision-making procedures for oil and gas prospecting on the marine shelf, which no longer comply with the environmental protection requirements.

At the same time, we should not exaggerate the risks of oil and gas prospecting projects. Thus, for instance. according to American scientists, oil drilling does not present too much danger. Risk of pollution resulting from an oil spill at а drilling site is а mere 2%, while that resulting from transportation reaches 50%.

Sea water dissolves about 5% of oil products, or even more. Released in sea water, the oil undergoes physical, chemical and biochemical changes. The volatile components, making from 20% to 50% of the crude oil, evaporate very intensively at the very beginning, than less so throughout the whole period of their presence in the sea water. Generally, the crude oil releases about 50% of its components into the atmosphere. Due to the evaporation. Very active is self-removal of the light gasoline and kerosene fractions, diesel fuel and other low-molecular compounds. However, this cannot be considered as self- purification of the sea environment, as it was thought sometimes.