Please enlighten a mere humble common worker?

Question

How do CFC's cause ozone destruction when they are 6-8 times heavier than the gasses which make up the atmosphere and are decayed by bacteria a few days after being released? Also, if UV rays interaction with normal O2 molecules creates ozone (thereby absorbing the energy), wouldn't there always be a hole over Antarctica, and won't more ozone form as soom as more UV rays strike the atmosphere?

Answer 1

1. CFCs or any gases mix with air over time - like CO2 is also heavier than air but it doesn't float just above the ground -all gases mix well, after some time.

2. CFCs don't decay by bacteria - they are pretty stable inorganic compounds and the presence of flourine or chlorine will make it even more difficult in general.

3. There is a lot I can tell you about air movements across globe - to be simpler, most of the population and the highly polluting countries are in the northern hemisphere and that's why it affects the north pole and not south pole.

4. The amount of Ozone is a matter of balance of ozone creation and destruction (ozone itself isn't a perfectly stable molecule) - it will regernate over time, to the level of thickness, we won't consider to be a "hole", if left undisturbed. Presence of some chemicals mess of ozone molecules, increasing the destruction than how much is being created for ozone layer depletion - you can get stats on the web if you search hard enough, how bad each molecule can be in ozone destruction potential.