Title: Worrying About Ozone: Here, There and Everywhere.
Abstract: While stratospheric ozone protects human, plant, and animal life from the harmful effects of the solar ultraviolet radiation, ozone in the lower atmosphere (i.e., the "bad ozone") has an adverse effect on these same organisms because of its ability to oxidize living tissue. Because bad ozone tends to be most concentrated in urban and industrial centers, it is commonly thought of as an urban air pollution problem.
There is, however, a growing body of evidence suggesting that:
- Enhanced concentrations of bad ozone are present in large portions of the northern hemisphere;
- These enhanced concentrations are the direct result of anthropogenic emissions associated with the burning of fossil fuels; and
- The economic and ecological consequences of these enhanced concentrations on managed and unmanaged ecosystems in the northern hemisphere are significant and growing.
The effects are especially severe in three regions of the northern mid-latitudes, the Continental-Scale Metro-Agro-Plexes (CSMAPs), where most of the world’s commercial energy consumption and food-crop production are concentrated. Paradoxically, the air production control strategies being considered in the United States and elsewhere to manage the adverse effects of bad ozone in urban areas may actually exacerbate the larger scale effects within the CSMAP’s and the northern hemisphere. Brochure