alright, folks, I was recently hit with this gem of an argument against the "supposed bogeyman of CFCs." I know the guy is just plain wrong, but not knowing enough about the subject, I just stuck to hypotheticals and "well, maybe it works like this..."

Anyway, the guy was saying that the concern over CFCs was a crock because it was all a matter of "gravity." His claim was that since CFCs were much heavier than ozone, they shouldn't be able to interact with ozone all that well, since they should naturally descend in the atmosphere and remain around ground level, being the denser gas and such.

i'm begging you folks out there, what the fuck is wrong with this assertion? I know our atmosphere is NOT layered by density of gases, yet... i mean, is that all there is to it? Our atmosphere isn't layered by density? help me out here, folks. and yes, I'm an atmospheric n00b

8/20/2007 10:53:43 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion

There's something there, somewhere.

[Edited on August 20, 2007 at 11:35 PM. Reason : That's not what I meant but I'll remove my comment. I forget how useless you people are.]

8/20/2007 11:14:07 PM

Damn, then how does water get up there? Fuck.

Oh, and from you own link

Quote :

"CFCs are "too heavy" to reach the stratosphere It is sometimes stated that since CFC molecules are much heavier than nitrogen or oxygen, they cannot reach the stratosphere in significant quantities.[39] But atmospheric gases are not sorted by weight; the forces of wind (turbulence) are strong enough to fully intermix gases in the atmosphere. CFCs are heavier than air, but just like argon, krypton and other heavy gases with a long lifetime, they are uniformly distributed throughout the turbosphere and reach the upper atmosphere.[40]"

nice way to pwn yourself A+

[Edited on August 20, 2007 at 11:16 PM. Reason : add]

8/20/2007 11:15:51 PM

Not to mention that it's the breakdown of the CFCs in to lighter parts to form chlorine ions that causes the troubles.

8/20/2007 11:27:13 PM

yeah, but they have to reach the upper atmosphere first, in order to breakdown at any sort of significant rate (UV radiation).

8/20/2007 11:45:35 PM