How are ozone depletion and global warming related?
Both are human-caused global environmental problems, and both are due to the release of man-made gases. Aside from that, essentially, ozone depletion and global warming are unrelated problems. Global warming is due to anthropogenic enhancement of the greenhouse effect. Humans have significantly increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere via the burning of fossil fuels and destruction of biomass. Stratospheric ozone depletion is caused by chemical reactions involving anthropogenically produced chlorine compounds, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). However, as we have discussed in the course, many phenomena in the Earth system are intertwined with one another via feedbacks and couplings. The most obvious connection between ozone depletion and global warming is the presence of CFCs. CFCs are the principle cause of ozone deletion, but they also happen to be greenhouse gases. However, because of their relatively low concentrations in the atmosphere, CFCs are responsible for less than
