Category Archives: Implications

Implications of Ozone Layer Depletetion on Singapore

How does the destuction of the ozone layer affect Singapore?

Sea level rise

As a low-lying island, the rise in sea level poses the most immediate threat to Singapore. Much of our nation lies only 15 m above the mean sea level, with about 30% of our island being less than 5 m above the mean sea level.

Water resources

An increase in the intensity of weather variability could present significant challenges to the management of our water resources. Periods of drought can affect the reliability of Singapore’s water supply, while sudden episodes of intense rainfall could overwhelm our drainage system and lead to flash floods.
Biodiversity and greenery

A mean temperature increase of 1.5°C to 2.5°C could affect the natural diversity of Singapore’s plants and animals at risk, as this alters our ecosystem’s natural processes such as soil formation, nutrient storage and pollution absorption.

Effect on public health

Singapore is situated in a region where vector-borne diseases are endemic. Most cases of vector-borne diseases like dengue are observed during warmer periods of the year. In addition, frequent and severe instances of warm weather may lead to more occurrences of heat stress and discomfort among the elderly and sick.
Urban heat island effect

Urban areas tend to be warmer due to the replacement of natural land cover with buildings and other infrastructure that retain or produce heat. Higher annual temperatures can also lead to heat stress as well as greater use of air-conditioning, increasing Singapore’s energy demands. This in turn results in higher domestic carbon emissions.
Food security

The effects of climate change, such as intense storms, flooding and prolonged droughts, are one of the trends threatening global food security. In Singapore, we are particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in global food supply and prices, as we import more than 90% of our food.

Implications

Positive effects of Ozone

Although ozone is an highly reactive form of oxygen and unstable, there are some benefits that it is able to provide us with. Below of some positive effects of the ozone.

 Small concentrations of ozone occurs naturally in the stratosphere. which is part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere. At that level, ozone layer do provide us to a certain level of protection, as seen in the diagram below.

 

By absorbing those ultraviolet radiation, it can help block to certain extent those harmful UV radiation that causes skin cancer, damage crops, destroy some type of marine life  and cataracts.

References:

Charles Welch (n.d.) ‘The Ozone Hole’ Retrieved on 18 March, 2015 from www.theozonehole.com

Larry West (n.d.) ‘Ozone: The Good and Bad of Ozone’ Retrieved on 18 March, 2015 from  http://environment.about.com/od/ozonedepletion/a/whatisozone.html

Implications

Implications to society

The world is currently still facing the problem of ozone depletion. Though there are efforts trying to reduce the use of CFCs and other contributory substances, we cannot ignore the serious impact of ozone depletion on the society.

ozoneOn the whole, impact of ozone depletion can be categorize into 2 types: Environmental effects and health effects. The ozone screen/layer is responsible for absorbing UVB ultraviolet light from the sun. Hence, with ozone depletion, the UVB level on the whole reaching earth surface increased.

Health Effects:

Prolonged exposure to the UV rays can cause sun burn, skin cancer, premature skin aging in both humans and animals.  It can weakens the human immune system according to some research, a probable cause to skin cancer. Furthermore, given too much exposure of the eyes to UV rays could lead to cataracts, blindness or other eye diseases.

In addition, the increase in surface UV leads to increase tropospheric ozone. As ozone is very toxic and hence could badly affect the health of those with respiratory issues.

Environmental Effects:

Plants are affected by the increased UV radiation, especially rice crops. The increase in UV radiation prevents nitrogen from retaining at the roots, thus affecting its growth rate.

Marine life is also affected by the increase in UV radiation. Organisms like Phytoplankton  is  threatened by the increase in UV radiation and the supply of such basic food for marine creatures is hence greatly reduced. That in turn affects other marine creatures like fishes to have lack in food supply. Size of those population of marine animals that consumes the planktons are directly affected.

Another implication that ozone depletion brings about is the increase degradation of materials. Materials that are composed of polymers are affected by the solar UV radiation. It accelerates the breakdown of such materials and may leads to such materials being less durable and usable in the future.

References:

Unknown (n.d.) ‘The Impacts of Ozone Depletion’ Retrieved on 17 March, 2015 from http://www.bcairquality.ca/101/ozone-depletion-impacts.html

Unknown (2011) ‘ Health and Environmental Effects of Ozone Layer Depletion’ Retrieved on 17 March, 2015 from  http://www.epa.gov/spdpublc/science/effects/index.html

Unknown (n.d.) ‘Ozone Depletion’ Retrieved on 17 March, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion#Increased_UV

Unknown (n.d.) ‘Ozone Depletion’ Retrieved on 17 March, 2015 from http://www.ozone-hole.org.uk/14.php

Unknown (n.d.) ‘Ozone Depletion’ Retrieved on 17 March, 2015 from http://www.ozone-hole.org.uk/16.php