South Korea to Feature Green Super City

Recently the government of South Korea announced about its intention to build a self-sufficient super-city. The project was designed by Foster + Partners, who worked in cooperation with PHA and Mobility in Chain. The city will serve as the territory where eco-friendly technologies will be developed. As soon as the Incheon eco-city is constructed, it will house 320,000 residents. It is expected that the city will become a place where sustainable industries will carry out their high-tech research and development programs, creating photovoltaic panels and wind turbines. Thus Incheon is expected to feature high-tech eco-friendly technologies, including biomass energy production, hydrogen fuel cells, as well as hydroponic roofs. The city will be finished in 10-15 years. More information on green technologies you can find here at www.InfoNIAC.com, please click the links at the bottom of the story.
At the moment the region is mostly agricultural and houses about 35,000 people. Green roofs will replace terrace farming, which would reduce the loss of agricultural space. All buildings in the city will not exceed 50 meters in height. According to Grant Brooker, a design director at Foster + Partners, the idea behind the whole project is to explore the sustainable possibilities of the island. More information is available here. link....

The Top 10 Worst Polluted Places on Earth

More than 10 million people in eight different countries are at serious risk for cancer, respiratory diseases, and premature death because they live in the 10 most polluted places on Earth, according to a report by the Blacksmith Institute, a nonprofit organization that works to identify and solve specific environmental problems worldwide.
Top 10 Worst Polluted Places Remote but ToxicChernobyl in Ukraine, site of the world’s worst nuclear accident to date, is the best known place on the list. The other places are unknown to most people, and located far from major cities and populations centers, yet 10 million people either suffer or risk serious health effects because of environmental problems ranging from lead contamination to radiation.
“Living in a town with serious pollution is like living under a death sentence,” the report says. “If the damage does not come from immediate poisoning, then cancers, lung infections, mental retardation, are likely outcomes.”
“There are some towns where life expectancy approaches medieval rates, where birth defects are the norm not the exception,” the report continues. “In other places children's asthma rates are measured above 90 percent, or mental retardation is endemic. In these places, life expectancy may be half that of the richest nations. The great suffering of these communities compounds the tragedy of so few years on earth."
Top 10 Worst Polluted Sites Serve as Examples of Widespread ProblemsRussia leads the list of eight nations, with three of the 10 worst polluted sites. Other sites were chosen because they are examples of problems found in many places around the world. For example, Haina, Dominican Republic has severe lead contamination—a problem that is common in many poor countries. Linfen, China is just one of several Chinese cities choking on industrial air pollution. And Ranipet, India is a nasty example of serious groundwater pollution by heavy metals.
The Top 10 Worst Polluted PlacesThe Top 10 worst polluted places in the world are:
1.Chernobyl, Ukraine
2.Dzerzhinsk, Russia
3.Haina, Dominican Republic
4.Kabwe, Zambia
5.La Oroya, Peru
6.Linfen, China
7.Maiuu Suu, Kyrgyzstan
8.Norilsk, Russia
9.Ranipet, India
10.Rudnaya Pristan/Dalnegorsk, Russia
Choosing the Top 10 Worst Polluted Places
The Top 10 worst polluted places were chosen by the Blacksmith Institute’s Technical Advisory Board from a list of 35 polluted places that had been narrowed from 300 polluted places identified by the Institute or nominated by people worldwide. The Technical Advisory Board includes experts from Johns Hopkins, Hunter College, Harvard University, IIT India, the University of Idaho, Mount Sinai Hospital, and leaders of major international environmental remediation companies.
Solving Global Pollution ProblemsAccording to the report, “there are potential remedies for these sites. Problems like this have been solved over the years in the developed world, and we have the capacity and the technology to spread our experience to our afflicted neighbors.”
“The most important thing is to achieve some practical progress in dealing with these polluted places,” says Dave Hanrahan, chief of global operations for the Blacksmith Institute. “There is a lot of good work being done in understanding the problems and in identifying possible approaches. Our goal is to instill a sense of urgency about tackling these priority sites.” link....

Water Pollution

News and information about the causes of water pollution and how to combat it.
Tap Water in 42 States Contaminated by ChemicalsPublic water supplies in 42 U.S. states--the tap water millions of Americans drink every day--are are contaminated with 141 unregulated chemicals for which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has never established safety standards, according to an investigation by the Environmental Working Group.
Coca-Cola Charged with Groundwater Depletion and Pollution in IndiaGroundwater depletion has become a serious problem in India, and villagers blame Coca-Cola for aggravating the groundwater problem. Learn what India's government and citizens are doing, and how Coca-Cola is responding to the groundwater and pollution charges.
Water Pollution - Canada Takes Crap for Flushing Raw Sewage into the OceanCanada flushes some 200 billion litres of raw sewage directly into natural waterways every year, from the St. Lawrence River to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean. One of the worst offenders is the city of Victoria, the picturesque capital of British Columbia, the province that is preparing to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. link....

Environmental Issues: Ozone Depletion

What is ozone depletion? And how does ozone depletion affect the earth? Learn about the causes and effects of ozone depletion, and how it changes the environment for humans, animals, and plants.
Ozone Hole TourDetailed information about the hole in the ozone over Antarctica, provided by the Centre for Atmospheric Science at Cambridge University.
zSB(3,3)
Forecast Earth: Ozone Depletion VideosThese two short videos about the science and response to ozone depletion and the health effects of ultraviolet radiation were created through a partnership between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and The Weather Channel. The videos can be viewed over broadband or 56K modem connections. Text transcripts are also available.
Check the UV Level Where You LiveThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides an online UV index that is searchable by zip code. Check the UV level in your neighborhood to determine how much you and your neighbors are contributing to depletion of the ozone layer.
EPA: Ozone DepletionDetailed information about ozone depletion from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Global Efforts to Control Ozone DepletionInformation about worldwide collaboration to mitigate the effects of ozone depletion, from the United Nations Environment Programme Ozone Secretariat.
Ozone: The Good and Bad of OzoneFrom a human perspective, ozone is both helpful and harmful, both good and bad. In the upper atmosphere, ozone protects all life on Earth. At ground level, ozone is toxic and corrosive, a threat to human health, ecosystems, plants and marine life. link....

Part I: The History behind the Ozone Hole

The Beginning ...
Dramatic loss of ozone in the lower stratosphere over Antarctica was first noticed in the 1970s by a research group from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) who were monitoring the atmosphere above Antarctica from a research station much like the picture to the right.
The Halley Research Station - Information
BAS research stations in the Antarctic
Folklore has it that when the first measurements were taken in 1985, the drop in ozone levels in the stratosphere was so dramatic that at first the scientists thought their instruments were faulty. Replacement instruments were built and flown out, and it wasn't until they confirmed the earlier measurements, several months later, that the ozone depletion observed was accepted as genuine.
Another story goes that the TOMS satellite data didn't show the dramatic loss of ozone because the software processing the raw ozone data from the satellite was programmed to treat very low values of ozone as bad readings! Later analysis of the raw data when the results from the British Antarctic Survey team were published, confirmed their results and showed that the loss was rapid and large-scale; over most of the Antarctica continent.
What Is Ozone And How Is It Formed?
Ozone (O3 : 3 oxygen atoms) occurs naturally in the atmosphere.
The earth's atmosphere is composed of several layers. We live in the "Troposphere" where most of the weather occurs; such as rain, snow and clouds. Above the troposphere is the "Stratosphere"; an important region in which effects such as the Ozone Hole and Global Warming originate. Supersonic jet airliners such as Concorde fly in the lower stratosphere whereas subsonic commercial airliners are usually in the troposphere. The narrow region between these two parts of the atmosphere is called the "Tropopause".
Ozone forms a layer in the stratosphere, thinnest in the tropics (around the equator) and denser towards the poles. The amount of ozone above a point on the earth's surface is measured in Dobson units (DU) - typically ~260 DU near the tropics and higher elsewhere, though there are large seasonal fluctuations. It is created when ultraviolet radiation (sunlight) strikes the stratosphere, dissociating (or "splitting") oxygen molecules (O2) to atomic oxygen (O). The atomic oxygen quickly combines with further oxygen molecules to form ozone:
O2 + hv->O + O(1)
O + O2->O3(2)

(1/v = wavelength < ~ 240 nm) It's ironic that at ground level, ozone is a health hazard - it is a major constituent of photochemical smog. However, in the stratosphere we could not survive without it. Up in the stratosphere it absorbs some of the potentially harmful ultra-violet (UV) radiation from the sun (at wavelengths between 240 and 320 nm) which can cause skin cancer and damage vegetation, among other things. Although the UV radiation splits the ozone molecule, ozone can reform through the following reactions resulting in no net loss of ozone: O3 + hv->O2 + O(3)
O + O2->O3(2)

as above
Ozone is also destroyed by the following reaction:
O + O3->O2 + O2(4)
The Chapman Reactions
The reactions above, labelled (1)-(4) are known as the "Chapman reactions". Reaction (2) becomes slower with increasing altitude while reaction (3) becomes faster. The concentration of ozone is a balance between these competing reactions. In the upper atmosphere, atomic oxygen dominates where UV levels are high. Moving down through the stratosphere, the air gets denser, UV absorption increases and ozone levels peak at roughly 20km. As we move closer to the ground, UV levels decrease and ozone levels decrease. The layer of ozone formed in the stratosphere by these reactions is sometimes called the 'Chapman layer'.
The Missing Reactions..
But there was a problem with the Chapman theory. In the 1960s it was realised that the loss of ozone given by reaction (4) was too slow. It could not remove enough ozone to give the values seen in the real atmosphere. There had to be other reactions, faster reactions that were controlling the ozone concentations in the stratosphere. We'll learn about these in Part III of this tour of the ozone hole.
What Is The Ozone Hole?
The Ozone Hole often gets confused in the popular press and by the general public with the problem of global warming. Whilst there is a connection because ozone contributes to the greenhouse effect, the Ozone Hole is a separate issue. However it is another stark reminder of the effect of man's activities on the environment. Over Antarctica (and recently over the Arctic), stratospheric ozone has been depleted over the last 15 years at certain times of the year. This is mainly due to the release of manmade chemicals containing chlorine such as CFC's (ChloroFluoroCarbons), but also compounds containing bromine, other related halogen compounds and also nitrogen oxides (NOx). CFC's are a common industrial product, used in refrigeration systems, air conditioners, aerosols, solvents and in the production of some types of packaging. Nitrogen oxides are a by-product of combustion processes, eg aircraft emissions.
A more detailed description of the chemistry will follow in Part III.
The current levels of depletion have served to highlight a surprising degree of instability of the atmosphere, and the amount of ozone loss is still increasing. GreenPeace have documented many of the concerns that this raises.
What Is Being Done?
The first global agreement to restrict CFCs came with the signing of the Montreal Protocol in 1987 ultimately aiming to reduce them by half by the year 2000. Two revisions of this agreement have been made in the light of advances in scientific understanding, the latest being in 1992. Agreement has been reached on the control of industrial production of many halocarbons until the year 2030. The main CFCs will not be produced by any of the signatories after the end of 1995, except for a limited amount for essential uses, such as for medical sprays.
The countries of the European Community have adopted even stricter measures than are required under the Montreal Protocol agreements. Recognising their responsibility to the global environment they have agreed to halt production of the main CFCs from the beginning of 1995. Tighter deadlines for use of the other ozone-depleting compounds are also being adopted.
It was anticipated that these limitations would lead to a recovery of the ozone layer within 50 years of 2000; the World Meteorological Organisation estimated 2045 (WMO reports #25, #37), but recent investigations suggest the problem is perhaps on a much larger scale than anticipated. link....

Part II: Recent Ozone Loss over Antarctica

Why the Antarctic?
There are now many measurements and observations of the changes in ozone that occur over Antarctica. Such measurements come from ground based instruments at the Antarctica research stations, from aircraft during scientific missions and from satellites.
Ozone loss was first detected in the stratosphere over the Antarctic (see Part I). Although mid-latitude and Arctic depletion has also been observed, the loss is most dramatic in the lower stratosphere over the Antarctica continent, where nearly all the ozone is destroyed over an area the size of Antarctica within a layer in the lower stratosphere that's many km thick.
Halley Bay, Antarctica
The graph to the right shows the measured total ozone above the Halley Bay station in Antarctica. Each point represents the average total ozone for the month of October. Note the sudden change in the curve after about 1975. By 1994, the total ozone in October was less than half its value during the 1970s, 20 years previous. This dramatic fall in ozone was caused by the use of man-made chemicals known as 'halocarbons' which include the well-known CFCs commonly used in fridges and so on. These CFCs had made their way into the upper atmosphere where the much stronger UV radiation from the Sun had broken them down into their component molecules, releasing the potentially damaging chlorine (and bromine) atoms, which, given the right conditions, could destroy ozone. We'll learn more about the chemistry behind the loss of ozone in Part III of this tour.
Regular ozone measurement have been made from the Halley Bay Research Station for many years. Ozone depletion is most marked in the Antarctic Spring, around October.
TOMS Satellite Measurements The TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) is a satellite-borne instrument used to gain a global picture of ozone levels. The following movie shows how the ozone levels over the Antarctic have been changing over the last 15 years. Measurements are taken daily, and the frames in the movie are constructed from monthly averages of the data. The data is freely available from several sites, including the British Atmospheric Data Centre.
Inline movie of TOMS ozone measurements from Nov 1978 to Jan 1992(3.7 Mb)
MPEG movie of TOMS ozone measurements from Nov 1978 to Jan 1992(1 Mb)
The TOMS instrument measures ozone levels from the back-scattered sunlight, specifically in the ultra-violet range. It measures wavelength bands centred at 312.5, 317.5, 331.3, 339.9, 360.0 and 380.0 nanometres. The first four wavelengths are absorbed to greater or lesser extents by ozone; the final two are used to assess the reflectivity. The ozone levels computed are 'column ozone' (i.e. Dobson Units or DU for short).
During the Antarctic winter (May - July), data is unavailable near the pole, which is in total darkness.
For more information, do visit the TOMS Home Page.
Monthly Averages for October
It is important to appreciate that the atmosphere behaves differently from year to year. Even though the same processes that lead to ozone depletion occur every year, the effect they have on the ozone is altered by the meteorology of the atmosphere above Antarctica. This is known as the 'variability' of the atmosphere. This variability leads to changes in the amount of ozone depleted and the dates when the depletion starts and finishes. To illustrate this, the monthly averages for October, from 1980 to 1991, are shown below.
You can obtain a larger image of a particular year by clicking on the appropriate globe. link....

Part III. The Science of the Ozone Hole

Introduction
Evidence that human activities affect the ozone layer has been building up over the last 20 years, ever since scientists first suggested that the release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere could reduce the amount of ozone over our heads.
The breakdown products (chlorine compounds) of these gases were detected in the stratosphere. When the ozone hole was detected, it was soon linked to this increase in these chlorine compounds. The loss of ozone was not restricted to the Antarctic - at around the same time the first firm evidence was produced that there had been an ozone decrease over the heavily populated northern mid-latitudes (30-60N). However, unlike the sudden and near total loss of ozone over Antarctica at certain altitudes, the loss of ozone in mid-latitudes is much less and much slower - only a few percentage per year. However, it is a very worrying trend and one which is the subject of intense scientific research at present. More on this in Part IV of the tour.
Many of these findings have since been reinforced by a variety of internationally supported scientific investigations involving satellites, aircraft, balloons and ground stations, and the implications are still being quantified and assessed. More about these international investigations in Part IV.
The Recipe For Ozone Loss
In trying to understand how the ozone loss occurs and the things that need to happen to destroy so much ozone, it helps to think of it as a 'recipe'. We need several ingredients to make the ozone loss occur. We'll now look at these 'ingredients' one at a time.
The Special Features of Polar Meteorology
We start by looking at the way the atmosphere behaves over the poles - the features of the meteorology in the stratosphere. The figure to the right shows schematically what happens over Antarctica during winter. During the winter polar night, sunlight does not reach the south pole. A strong circumpolar wind develops in the middle to lower stratosphere. These strong winds are known as the 'polar vortex'. This has the effect of isolating the air over the polar region.
Since there is no sunlight, the air within the polar vortex can get very cold. So cold that special clouds can form once the air temperature gets to below about -80C. These clouds are called Polar Stratospheric Clouds (or PSCs for short) but they are not the clouds that you are used to seeing in the sky which are composed of water droplets. PSCs first form as nitric acid trihydrate. As the temperature gets colder however, larger droplets of water-ice with nitric acid dissolved in them can form. However, their exact composition is still the subject of intense scientific scrutiny. These PSCs are crucial for ozone loss to occur.So, we have the first few ingredients for our 'ozone loss recipe'. We must have:
1.Polar winter leading to the formation of the polar vortex which isolates the air within it.
2.Cold temperatures; cold enough for the formation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds. As the vortex air is isolated, the cold temperatures persist.
Chemical Processes Leading To Polar Ozone Depletion
It is now accepted that chlorine and bromine compounds in the atmosphere cause the ozone depletion observed in the `ozone hole' over Antarctica and over the North Pole. However, the relative importance of chlorine and bromine for ozone destruction in different regions of the atmosphere has not yet been clearly explained. Nearly all of the chlorine, and half of the bromine in the stratosphere, where most of the depletion has been observed, comes from human activities.
The figure above shows a schematic illustrating the life cycle of the CFCs; how they are transported up into the upper stratosphere/lower mesosphere, how sunlight breaks down the compounds and then how their breakdown products descend into the polar vortex.
The main long-lived inorganic carriers (reservoirs) of chlorine are hydrochloric acid (HCl) and chlorine nitrate (ClONO2). These form from the breakdown products of the CFCs. Dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5) is a reservoir of oxides of nitrogen and also plays an important role in the chemistry. Nitric acid (HNO3) is significant in that it sustains high levels of active chlorine (as explained soon).
Production of Chlorine Radicals
One of the most important points to realise about the chemistry of the ozone hole is that the key chemical reactions are unusual. They cannot take place in the atmosphere unless certain conditions are present: our first two ingredients in our recipe for ozone loss.
The central feature of this unusual chemistry is that the chlorine reservoir species HCl and ClONO2 (and their bromine counterparts) are converted into more active forms of chlorine on the surface of the polar stratospheric clouds. The most important reactions in the destruction of ozone are:
HCl + ClONO2->HNO3 + Cl2(1)
ClONO2 + H2O->HNO3 + HOCl(2)
HCl + HOCl->H2O + Cl2(3)
N2O5 + HCl->HNO3 + ClONO(4)
N2O5 + H2O->2 HNO3(5)

It's important to appreciate that these reactions can only take place on the surface of polar stratospheric clouds, and they are very fast. This is why the ozone hole was such as surprise. Heterogeneous reactions (those that occur on surfaces) were neglected in atmospheric chemistry (at least in the stratosphere) before the ozone hole was discovered. Another ingredient then, is these heterogeneous reactions which allow reservoir species of chlorine and bromine to be rapidly converted to more active forms.
The nitric acid (HNO3) formed in these reactions remains in the PSC particles, so that the gas phase concentrations of oxides of nitrogen are reduced. This reduction, 'denoxification' is very important as it slows down the rate of removal of ClO that would otherwise occur by the reaction:
ClO + NO2 + M->ClONO2 + M(6) (where M is any air molecule)
... and so helps to maintain high levels of active chlorine. Here is some more information on Polar Stratospheric Clouds.
This movie shows a 3D model simulation of how chlorine nitrate (ClONO2) changes during a northern hemisphere winter in the lower stratosphere. Remember that ClONO2 is destroyed when the PSCs form, so for a large part of the movie, you see nothing. But as sunlight returns to the polar night region over the Arctic we see the ClONO2 start to recover. This first happens around the edge of the polar vortex, and we the the now classic doughnut shape of the so-called 'chlorine nitrate collar'.
Evolution of ClONO2 over the North Pole during winter 1994 (3.4 Mb)
Evolution of ClONO2 over the North Pole during winter 1994 (small) (554 Kb)
Evolution of ClONO2 over the North Pole during winter 1994 (large)(1.2Mb)
The Return Of Sunlight
Lastly note that we have still only formed molecular chlorine (Cl2) from reactions (1)-(5). To destroy ozone requires atomic chlorine.
Molecular chlorine is easily photodissociated (split by sunlight):
Cl2 + hv-> Cl + Cl

This is the key to the timing of the ozone hole. During the polar winter, the cold temperatures that form in the 'vortex' lead to the formation of polar stratospheric clouds. Heterogeneous reactions convert the reservoir forms of the ozone destroying species, chlorine and bromine, to their molecular forms. When the sunlight returns to the polar region in the southern hemisphere spring (northern hemisphere autumn) the Cl2 is rapidly split into chlorine atoms which lead to the sudden loss of ozone. This sequence of events has been confirmed by measurements before, during and after the ozone hole.
There is still one more ingredient for our recipe of ozone destruction. We have most of it but we have still not explained the chemical reactions that the atomic chlorine actually takes part in to destroy the ozone. We'll discuss this next.
Catalytic Destruction of Ozone
Measurements taken of the chemical species above the pole show the high levels of active forms of chlorine that we have explained above. However, we still have many more atoms of ozone than we do of the active chlorine so how it is possible to destroy nearly all of the ozone?
The answer to this question lies in what are known as 'catalytic cycles'. A catalytic cycle is one in which a molecule significantly changes or enables a reaction cycle without being altered by the cycle itself.
The production of active chlorine requires sunlight, and sunlight drives the following catalytic cycles thought to be the main cycles involving chlorine and bromine, responsible for destroying the ozone:
(I)ClO + ClO + M->Cl2O2 + M

Cl2O2 + hv->Cl + ClO2
ClO2 + M->Cl + O2 + M
then:2 x (Cl + O3)->2 x (ClO + O2)
net:2 O3->3 O2
and (II)
ClO + BrO->Br + Cl + O2
Cl + O3->ClO + O2
Br + O3->BrO + O2
net:2 O3->3 O2
The dimer (Cl2O2) of the chlorine monoxide radical involved in Cycle (I) is thermally unstable, and the cycle is most effective at low temperatures. Hence, again low temperatures in the polar vortex during winter are important. It is thought to be responsible for most (70%) of the ozone loss in Antarctica. In the warmer Arctic a large proportion of the loss may be driven by Cycle (II).
The Recipe For Ozone Loss
To summarise then, we have looked at the 'ingredients' or conditions necessary for the destruction of ozone that we see in Antarctica. The same applies more or less to the loss of ozone in the Arctic stratosphere during winter. Although in this case the loss is not nearly so severe.
To recap then, the requirements for ozone loss are:
The polar winter leads to the formation of the polar vortex which isolates the air within it.
Cold temperatures form inside the vortex; cold enough for the formation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs). As the vortex air is isolated, the cold temperatures and the PSCs persist.
Once the PSCs form, heterogeneous reactions take place and convert the inactive chlorine and bromine reservoirs to more active forms of chlorine and bromine.
No ozone loss occurs until sunlight returns to the air inside the polar vortex and allows the production of active chlorine and initiates the catalytic ozone destruction cycles. Ozone loss is rapid. The ozone hole currently covers a geographic region a little bigger than Antarctica and extends nearly 10km in altitude in the lower stratosphere. link....