Mario Molina's Research Not Only Led to the Solution for the Antarctic Ozone Hole, But it Led to the Solution for Global Warming Caused by Humans Since 1960

The ozone layer protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet-B solar radiation, the most energetic, hottest, solar radiation to regularly reach the lower stratosphere. Ultraviolet-B is harmful because, at adequate dosage, it burns human skin, causes skin cancer, and degrades materials left outdoors. Ultraviolet-B radiation causes photodissociation of ozone. When there is less ozone in the lower stratosphere than normal, more of this very hot radiation is observed to reach Earth. Chlorofluorocarbon gases (CFCs) became widely manufactured in the 1960s for use as refrigerants, spray-can propellants, and fire-retardants. By 1970, ozone depletion began to increase, especially in polar regions where it is enhanced by polar stratospheric clouds. Mean surface air temperatures also began to increase, especially in the northern hemisphere, where human-enhanced, ground-level ozone concentrations were heated by photodissociation caused by increasing ultraviolet-B radiation penetrating to Earth's surface. As a result of the Montreal Protocol, emissions of CFCs stopped increasing in 1993, ozone depletion stopped increasing in 1995, and mean surface air temperatures stopped increasing in 1998. Ultraviolet heat absorbed on land is primarily radiated back into the atmosphere at night as infrared radiation, but ultraviolet radiation penetrates oceans to depths of tens of meters, where the heat is not radiated back into the atmosphere until the whole ocean surface warms. Oceans store 1000 times more heat than the atmosphere. Since ozone depletion is expected to continue for decades, ocean temperatures will continue to rise and glacial ice will continue to melt. The fundamental problem with greenhouse-gas theory is with the way thermal energy has been calculated since the 19th century. Based on equations by Maxwell (1865) and mathematics developed in the 1890s, electromagnetic radiation is thought to propagate as waves where energy is a function of wave-amplitude squared as well as the bandwidth of the wavelengths absorbed. But there is no physical way for waves to travel through space. Michelson and Morley (1887) showed that there is no medium for waves to travel in. Computer models based on greenhouse-gas theory predict that mean surface air temperatures should continue to increase after 1998 because concentrations of carbon dioxide have continued to increase. These computer models also calculate that Earth is warmed more by infrared radiation from Earth than by ultraviolet radiation from Sun. Yet it is common knowledge that one gets much hotter standing in sunlight bathed in ultraviolet radiation, than standing outdoors at night, bathed in infrared radiation. Small amounts of ultraviolet radiation burn skin, while endless exposure to infrared radiation cannot burn skin and cannot even energize photosynthesis. The second law of thermodynamics states, in effect, that thermal energy can only flow from higher temperature to lower temperature. No heat can flow spontaneously by conduction or by radiation from a colder body to a warmer body. Layers of gas in the atmosphere are observed to be colder than Earth's surface. Even if these gases do radiate infrared energy back towards Earth, this colder radiation is reflected, not absorbed, by a warmer Earth. One does not stand next to a cold stove to get warm. When you heat matter, the frequencies and amplitudes of very high-frequency oscillations of all the degrees of freedom of all the bonds that hold matter together are observed to increase. Planck's law shows that with increasing temperature of matter, the amplitudes of these oscillations increase at every frequency and the frequency of the highest amplitude oscillations also increases. Heat in matter is stored in these oscillations since the heat capacity of matter increases with increasing number of degrees of freedom of the bonds. Heat flows in matter from higher amplitude of oscillation to lower amplitude of oscillation via resonance. Heat flows into a colder atmosphere or space when these oscillations on the surface of matter induce electromagnetic oscillations that radiate the heat through air or space. This radiation, when absorbed by colder matter, increases the amplitudes of bond oscillations via resonance, warming the matter. The thermal energy of these oscillations at each frequency is equal to the frequency times the Planck constant. Thermal energy of ultraviolet-B radiation reaching Earth when ozone is depleted, is 48 times greater, 48 times hotter, than infrared radiation absorbed most strongly by carbon dioxide. The air temperature at Earth's surface is determined primarily by the dosage of thermal energy reaching Earth. Changes in surface temperature are likewise caused by changes in the dosage of thermal energy reaching Earth. The amount of ultraviolet-B radiation not absorbed by the ozone layer, has the greatest effect on changing Earth's surface temperature. The effect of infrared radiation absorbed by greenhouse gases is, at least, 48 times smaller. Ozone is also depleted by chlorine and bromine emitted from active volcanoes of all sizes. Effusive, basaltic volcanic eruptions, typical in Hawaii and Iceland, extrude large lava flows, depleting ozone and causing global warming. Major explosive volcanoes, on the other hand, also deplete ozone but in addition eject megatons of water and sulfur dioxide into the lower stratosphere where they form sulfuric-acid aerosols whose particles grow large enough to reflect and scatter ultraviolet sunlight, causing net global cooling for a few years. The relative amounts of explosive and effusive volcanism are determined by the configuration of tectonic plates moving around Earth's surface. Detailed studies of climate change throughout geologic time are not well explained by greenhouse-gas theory, but are explained quite clearly by ozone-depletion theory. Ozone concentrations vary substantially by the minute and show close relationships to synoptic highs and lows, as pointed out by Dobson in the 1920s, the height of the tropopause, and to the strength and location of polar vortices and jet streams. Integrating the effects of volcanism on ozone concentrations and the effects of ozone concentrations on synoptic weather patterns should improve weather forecasting. For example, the volcano Bárgarbunga, in central Iceland, extruded 85 km2 of basaltic lava between August 29, 2014, and February 28, 2015, having a profound effect on weather. Details are explained in my new book “What Really Causes Global Warming? Greenhouse gases or ozone depletion” and at ozonedepletiontheory.info.