Word: sun
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...paraphrase that famous remark about the weather, everyone talks about the ozone layer, but no one does anything about it. Though evidence has mounted that man-made compounds called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are destroying the screen of ozone-enriched air that helps shield the earth from the sun's dangerous radiation, the world's nations have been slow to develop a consensus on how to cope with the problem...
...ozone belt, which stretches six to 30 miles above the earth, has already been destroyed. Moreover, researchers have found evidence of "holes" in the shield, including one above Antarctica that approaches the size of the continental U.S. As the world's ozone layer deteriorates, the sun's radiation could lead to a dramatic increase in skin cancer and cataracts, along with a lowered resistance to infection. It could damage plant life, both directly and as a result of a general warming trend; that warming could lead to a disastrous rise in sea levels...
...Deng said to me, "If the world is thrown out of its orbit, won't there be a danger that the earth will be plummeted into that huge ball of fiery gas, the Sun...
While many Harvard students windsurfed the waves, criss-crossed exotic continents, or partied hearty throughout the summer months, others whiled away those precious sun-filled afternoons answering phones in office buildings or memorizing reruns of the Brady Bunch. And some had the gall to do nothing, absolutely nothing, zippo for that good ol' resume...
Farmer discovered that chlorine compounds bloom as the hole appears each year. His theory: the compounds condense onto ice crystals during the polar winter; then, as spring nears in early September, the chlorine is warmed by the sun and converted into a reactive form that can destroy ozone. The presence of fluorine in the atmosphere supports the view that these chlorine compounds are of man-made origin. "There isn't any fluorine in the upper atmosphere from any natural source," says Farmer. This suggests that the source of the accompanying chlorine is chlorofluorocarbons...