orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) (09/22/86)
S Luke Jones replies on the destruction of the ozone layer: > No need to list so many sources explaining how important ozone is. > Having had on various occasions both a sunburn and a high-school > biology class, I'm willing to stipulate its importance. No problem. > I wrote: > > Next point, its destruction in nuclear war: > > The 1975 National Academy of Sciences Report, "Longterm Worldwide > > Effects of Multiple Nuclear-Weapons Detonations" found that > > the explosion of 10,000 megatons of nuclear weapons ... reduce > > the ozone layer in the Northern Hemisphere, where the report > > assumes that the explosions would occur, by anything from 30 > > to 70%, and that it would reduce it in the Southern Hemisphere by > > anything from 20 to 40%. To which S. Luke Jones replied: > > Most importantly, what does a given percent of depletion in the > ozone layer translate to in terms of increased radiation at sea > level? After all, it isn't ozone we're worried in, but rather > the effects of its absence. So tell me about that, instead. Again, I will use a reference provided by Jonathan Schell in "Fate of the Earth" as Mr. Schell has done a masterful job of compending the evidence on just how awful a nuclear war would be. As you have had high school biology, I assume you are aware that the ozone layer is what filters out harmful ultraviolet rays. If the ozone layer were destroyed therefore increased ultraviolet radiation would reach the Earth's surface. According to the Dept. of Transportation's report "Impacts of Climatic Change on the Biosphere": "...excessive UV-B radiation [that part of the ultraviolet spectrum which would be significantly increased by ozone depletion] is a decidedly detrimental factor for most organisms, including man. Even current levels of solar UV-B irradiance can be linked with phenomena such as increased mutation rates, delay of cell division, depression of photosynthesis in phytoplankton, skin cancer in humans, cancer eye in certain cattle, and lethality of many lower organisms, such as aquatic invertebrates and bacteria." If the NAS estimate of ozone layer depletion is correct, anyone who went outside for more than 10 minutes would be subject to incapacitating sunburn. As for other effects of ozone layer depletion, Dr. Ting H. Hsiao, a professor of entomology at Utah State University, wrote in Dept. of Transportation's Climactic Assessment Report: "Since insects are important in the world's ecosystems, any changes in other components of the ecosystem could have an impact on insect populations. Ultraviolet radiation is a physical factor that directly influences all biotic components of the ecosystem.....A change in abiotic factors, such as temperature, rainfall, or wind, associated with elevated ultraviolet radiation could profoundly affect behavior, biology, population structure, dispersal and migration of insects." Drs. John Calkins of the Dept. of Radiation Medicine of the U of Kentucky and D. Stuart Nachtwey, a professor of radiation biology at Oregon State U. stated in the Climactic Impact Assessment report that experimentation indicates that "many aquatic micro-organisms and invertebrates have little reserve capacity to cope with surface levels of solar UV-B." According to Schell's report on the findings of these studies: "The organisms at greatest risk are the unicellular organisms that lie at the base of the marine food chain, and thus ultimately sustain the higher creatures in the oceans." tim sevener whuxn!orb lie