Sustaining civilisation - 1

D 1 --- | --- D 3

How long can a technological civilisation survive before it destroys itself and/or its environment?

Death by environmental pollution

Fog in London

The detritus from industrial civilisation can have long term effects on both the surface layers of the Earth and the atmosphere. Industrial pollutants have long been recognised to have a detrimental effect on the environment - for example, acid rain was first recdognised as a problem by The scots chem,ist, Robert Angus Smith, in 1852 (see this site for more information.)

Certain chemicals in some commercial aerosols dissociate ozone, depleting the protective layer in the Earth's atmosphere.
The Antarctic hole varies seasonally - larger in summer - but the variation has increased notably in recent years (see The EPA Ozone page )
No ozone - less protection from UV radiation - higher probability of skin cancers, etc

The depletion in the ozone layer over Antarctica in summer, 1995